Tsundere Asuka?
by nagareboshi8889
Summary: Asuka was taking a synchro test while something goes wrong and she is teleported into Central, a place she has never heard about, but everyone speaks... German? There, she meets the famous Edward Elric and joins him to search for the philosopher's stone. first fanfic, please be kind. i know we've seen something like this a million times: it takes place during brotherhood
1. Chapter 1

Fullmetal Alchemist Evangelion crossover?

Chapter one  
"It's so hot... why do we have to cross the desert? Can't we just take a boat or plane back from Liore instead of walking?" Asuka complained loudly, extremely irritated at the sand in her boots.  
"Well, what am I supposed to do about it? And this is the twentieth century, for your information, we don't have these 'plain' things yet," Ed replied equally loudly, equally irritated, but at how Asuka can't go a minute without complaining about something.  
"Well, _I_ live, or used to, in the twenty first century, and I was taking a synchro test. Misato wanted to find out why EVA doesn't work as well without the plug suit, so they had me enter the plug with my normal clothes. But something went wrong and I got teleported into Central somehow. And then, I just happen to be unfortunate enough to meet you!"

"Speaking of which, you still haven't thanked me for all those clothes i bought you!"

"But the clothes you transmuted for me were ugly" asuka complained again.

"What's wrong with my sense of style? Are you saying i have no taste?"

"Damn right, I am!" Al sighed as the two continued to bicker all the way into their destination: Central. That was where they met her. With her fiery red hair, she was easy to spot among the crowds of people at the train station. Ed had insisted that she looked lost and that they should go help her.

"That Liore case was handled, thanks to you, but the philosopher's stone was fake too?" Colonel Roy Mustang questioned the trio.  
"The stone was fake" Ed confirmed after a pause. "But it's power was amazing. It even transformed this huge chimera thing. I wonder how he made it... If we look more into it, it might help us get out bodies back"  
"Well, in that case, why don't I introduce you to Shou Tucker. He's a researcher, dealing with chimera transmutation"

"Ah, sorry about this. Ever since my wife ran out on me, the house has been like this." Tucker apologized.  
"Hey, big sis, you're so pretty! I've never seen anyone as pretty as you before! I wish I looked like you!" Nina commented. Ed looked over to see Asuka looking down at Nina looking up at her, staring at Asuka with puppy dog eyes. Nina wasn't just flattering Asuka. Asuka was truly beautiful. Her hair was a perfect golden-red, but she was more of a redhead than a strawberry blond. She had a pretty heart shaped face that would attract second glances from both genders, and deep, sapphire blue eyes that you can get lost in. Puberty has been kind to her, giving her curves and long legs, even though she is only five feet tall. Yes, Ed admits, compared to his four feet eleven, she is taller than him, but only by one inch! When Ed first saw Asuka, he thought that she was a child actress from another city. He went to help her when he saw that she was lost. He immediatly regretted it, when he found out about her personality. But Ed had to agree with Nina... Asuka is the best looking female he has ever seen.  
"Thank you," The redhead answered Nina.  
"Why don't you play with Nina, since this field of alchemy doesn't interest you," Ed asked.  
"Nah, I wanna go with you" Asuka whined as Tucker led them to his library.  
"Feel free to look around"  
"Wow! Awesome! I'll start with this one" Ed grabbed a book "and since you're here, why don't you start with this one" he thrust a book into Asuka's arms. Asuka sighed as she walked to a table, pulled out a chair and began reading, but she didn't recognize any of the words except the 'thes', 'withs' and 'ands'. Her field of alchemy was not associated with this crap! Instead, she used electricity. Her synchro clips somehow acted like transmutation circles. Of course, the designs on the clips were more square than circle, that was just the way it was. They allowed her the ability of Misaka Mikoto, one of her favourite anime characters from her childhood, when her mother had still been alive... Just by willing it, she can produce electric currents. Of course, the EVA training had not intentually helped her prepare for this but Asuka can go a long period of time of continually using her electric alchemy, but her stamina isn't infinite and it gets mentally exhausting for Asuka.  
After every page flip, Asuka found it more and more difficult to open her eyes after blinking, as her eyelids had become extremely heavy. She constantly found herself reading the same line over and over again. Oh, how she wished to go back to Tokyo 3, where she could torment stupid Shinji and battle the angels. Who knows might have happened after she had gone! Wondergirl might be stealing her spotlight. What if Wondergirl replaced her? That would be horrible! Asuka misses Japan. That's why she's travelling with the Elric brothers. If they found the philosopher's stone, they might be able to get her back to her world.

Asuka woke up to the sound of laughing. She got up from her seat, and followed the sound of laughter to see Nina sitting on Al's shoulders and the great dog sitting on Ed.  
"Alexander says he wants to play too" Nina translated  
"You've got some nerve... They say a lion uses all of his strength to even hunt a rabbit" Ed slowly got up "So I, Edward Elric, will use my whole body and soul to take you on, you beast of a dog!"

"Hello Mr Tucker! Thanks for having us again today!" Al was greeted with silence. "Mr Tucker?" The whole house seemed empty, but the trio eventually found him, in his laboratory.  
"I did it! I finally transmuted a chimera capable of human speech!" Tucker referred to the creature beside him, "look here, this person is Edward."  
"Ed...ward"  
"Very good!"  
"Amazing, it really does talk," Ed commented as he and Asuka bent down to take a closer look.  
"Ed...ward... Ed...ward... Ed...ward... Big...bro...ther"  
Ed and Asuka's eyes widened in realization  
"Mr Tucker, where are..." Ed began  
"...Nina and Alexander?" Asuka finished

"I really hate kids like you, who are quick to catch on"

It was not Ed who hit him first. It was asuka who landed the first punch on Tucker's nose. There was an almighty crack and blood ran down his nose. Ed quickly took the opportunity to slam tucker into the nearest wall.

"Yeah, that's right, you went and did it! Two years ago, it was your wife! This time, you used your own daughter and a dog to transmute a chimera!" tucker struggled against Ed's grip on his throat. "There are limits to what you can do with animal experimentation after all!" Ed's words were coated with rage and menace. "It's much easier to just use real humans instead, huh?"

"Wh-what are you getting so upset over? Mankind's progress has been the result of countless human experiments, right? If you're a scientist, then..."

"Screw you! Do you think you can get away with this? Toying around with a person's life like this?" Ed spat

"A person's life? Yes, a person's life indeed! Fullmetal alchemist, your arm and leg, your brother, that was also the result of toying with a person's life, as you say, right?"

"No!" Ed buried his automail fist into Tucker's already broken nose and knocked his glasses to the floor.

"Haha! We are the same! You and me! Yes we are! The possibility was right in front of us, so we tried it! Even though we knew it was taboo!

"No! I don't... Alchemists don't... Do this sort of... I'm not... I'm not..." every couple of words, Ed buried his fist into Tucker's face, again and again.

"Brother!" Al grabbed Ed's wrist as he recoiled it, preparing to strike again. "any more and he's gonna die"

Asuka already knew that Al was the only decent one of the trio. She had wanted tucker to die. Though she would never admit it, she had grown quite attached to Nina and Alexander. She had deemed them worthy of her presence and trusted them to not leave her like her mother did... Asuka had wanted to watch tucker die a painful and gruesome death, and if Ed wasn't man enough to do it, Asuka herself was prepared to take over. She could see that Ed was also trembling with rage, just like her, but both of them froze as the chimera appeared beside him.

"Dad...do you hurt...dad...do you hurt...?"

"If there was ever an act of the devil in this world, this case would definitely be it" Riza Hawkeye stated as she made her way down the rain covered stairs with her trusted colonel.

"The devil huh? Then again state alchemists must be willing to act and not refuse when ordered to take another's life. As far as dealing with others' lives, Mr Tucker's actions and our own situations are not all that different. And we chose that path, knowing that fact full well. Isn't that right, Fullmetal?"

"Whether we get called dogs of the military, or cursed as devils, Al and I are going to get our bodies back. But even so, we're not devils, let alone god... We are humans.

"We're humans! We were not able to save one little girl... We're just insignificant humans."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Ed awoke, gasping for breath. So it was all just a dream... but Ed was still not relieved. He couldn't forgive himself. He couldn't save Nina and Alexander. He couldn't save Al when the transmutation went bad. He couldn't even save himself on that day.

"Are you alright Brother? You were having a nightmare" Al hoped to calm Ed down, but all it did was make him curl up into a ball.

"Will you walk with me?"

"Sure. Should we get Asuka?"

"Nah, she's probably sleeping and you know how moody she would be if you woke her up" Ed said as he got out of bed and exited the room.

Four hours later, Ed and Al burst through the door of the Hughes house.

"There you dumbasses are! You could have at least told me that you were gonna go outside!" Asuka's voice traveled down the hall and was soon followed by the real Asuka, but she immediately stopped when she saw the state the brothers were in. They looked horrible! Ed's automail arm was missing and Asuka quickly noticed Major Armstrong supporting Al, who looked like he was gonna fall apart any moment.

"Pack your bags Asuka. Were going to see our mechanic in Risembool"

The train station in Central was a noisy place. They didn't have to wait for very long for their train to arrive. Asuka quickly found a booth but she didn't see Al anywhere. Instead, Major Armstrong was there.  
"...The folks at the Eastern Command Center were all busy, and couldn't come so I'm seeing you off, instead" Mr Hughes continued  
"That's fine and all... but why is the major here?" Ed asked  
"Isn't it obvious? What if scar was to attack you again or something? You'd be in trouble in the shape you're in, right? The major means well. Just accept it willingly"  
Ed's attention turned to the major. "By the way, you're sure Al got aboard, right?" Ed sat down beside Asuka.  
"Of course! He's with the cattle and sheep. I thought he would be lonesome, all by himself"  
"WHAT DO YOU THINK MY BROTHER IS?"  
Hours passed on the train and Ed fell asleep leaning on the window and Asuka passed out on Ed's left shoulder. When the train finally arrived at Risembool, Ed had to wipe all the poop off Al's box to make him look acceptable. Ed then led the way to the house of his childhood friend, Winry.  
"Yo, granny, we're home!" Ed greeted the old woman at the top of the hill they were climbing  
"My word, what have you gotten into?" Granny asked when she saw Ed's empty sleeve  
"A lot has happened. Can you set us up again?" Ed asked "This is Major Armstrong, and the redhead over there is Asuka"  
"Pinako Rockbell" Granny shook Armstrong's hand and eyed Asuka when she offered a smile and a little wave. "Are you Ed's girlfriend? I tell you, a young girl as good looking as you is wasted on something like him"  
Asuka and Ed turned red at the comment. "She's not my girlfriend! She's just traveling with us" Ed denied.  
"You know, I don't see you for a while, Ed," Granny continued as if nobody said anything "and you've gone and grown smaller"  
"Hey, usually in this situation, you say 'grown bigger'!" Ed said menacingly  
"If you had grown bigger, I would have said it"  
"WHAT WAS THAT, YOU MINIMUM HAG?"  
Suddenly, something silver, which turned out to be a wrench, flew out of nowhere and made heavy contact with Ed's skull.  
"I told you, when you come back for maintenance, call first!"  
"WINRY, ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"  
So that was Winry, Asuka thought, she has good aim...

"Asuka, you're bath is ready!" Winry called. Everyone had finished eating dinner and Ed was stuck doing the dishes. Armstrong was outside, collecting more firewood, and Al was also outside, but sitting by the chickens.  
"Why do I get stuck doing the dishes?" Ed complained  
"Because me and granny will be busy making your automail and Asuka is busy taking her bath." Winry replied. Ed grumbled something unintelligent before turning to do the huge pile of dishes.  
A shriek pierced the otherwise peaceful night, and Asuka appeared, fully naked, in the doorway of the kitchen. "In there, a creature in there" she gestured down the hall, while Den calmly walked into the room. Asuka eyed the dog's automail leg.  
"Don't worry, it's just a dog with automail. His name's Den" Ed said before turning around to face her. A nosebleed immediately followed his red face. Asuka glanced down and her eyes widened in realization. So she did the thing that was sensible. She jumped and landed a ninja kick on Ed's face.  
"You pervert! How dare you spy on me?" She accused as she continued to kick Ed, both arms busy covering her chest and hips. "This is why I hate boys! They're all perverts! Every single one! You're lucky I took my synchro clips off! If I still had them on, I would have fried you here and now!"

"Ready?" Winry asked, three days later, as she prepared to connect the nerves of Ed's new automail arm.

"Y-yeah" but Ed didn't sound ready to Asuka. Asuka had come to watch after hard training of trying to increase her electric stamina. She has even developed her railgun. Though her railgun wasn't as badass as Misaka's, it was still a railgun but she could only fire the coins at a rate of 3 times a minute and having the same voltage as Misaka's. Asuka has been using the river nearby as the shock absorbent as to not create too much damage. But she had run out of her coin shaped pieces of metal. Ed had always transmuted them for her because she kept stealing his money and using them.

"One..." Granny prepared to attach Ed's new automail leg.

"...Two..."

"...Three!" Ed tensed up as the nerves were attached. It looked like it hurt alot.

A few moments later, Ed finally calmed down. "I hate the moment the nerves connect, every time" he complained "but once we get a philosopher's stone, I can kiss that pain goodbye!"

"I hate to lose our biggest source of income..." Granny tightened a screw on Ed's leg, causing him to yelp

"Right, so you don't have to overexert yourselves to get back to normal" Winry tightened a screw on Ed's arm, causing him to hiss in pain

Asuka left as Winry began a speech about the beauty of automail. Asuka had become friends with Winry like she became friends with Hikari, but Winry was a serious gearhead and her speeches about automail were extremely dull. The main event has passed. They were just doing the finishing touches now.

"Alright, we're done..." Granny stated as Ed started stretching his new limbs, testing them out. "Well...?"

"Yeah, feels good. Sorry to keep you waiting, Al!" Ed ran out of the house and Asuka watched as Ed transmuted his brother. "Alright, good as new! You wanna go right at it?"

"Mm-hmm!" Al answered as the two prepared to fight.

"Edward Elric, if you don't create more coins for me, I'm gonna start using money again! I've already waited two days for you to get your automail fixed, so hurry up!"

"Ok, ok. Geez" Ed transmuted a fresh batch of coins from some scrap pieces of metal from Winry's workshop. "You don't have to spaz about it" He put them in a sack and put it in Asuka's outstretched arms. Ed then started training with Al again. Asuka hugged the bag of coins. They were still warm... Like new photocopies, fresh from the printer. The worksheets were so easy, Asuka always rubbed it in stupid Shinji's face that she was smarter than him. God, she missed piloting... They better find the philosopher's stone soon.

Asuka went to the river. She might as well practice again. She took out a coin from her bag and held it so that it looked like she was gonna flip it. She eyed a leaf floating peacefully down the river. She would try to aim for that. Asuka started to concentrate. 'Focus,' she told herself, 'focus all my electrical energy from all over my body and focus it on the coin. Guide all the electrical currents to the tip of my thumb and index finger. Compress it. Then... _let it explode!_' The coin flew from her hand faster than a bullet and shot into the river. That caused the water within 20 meters on either side of Asuka to leap into the sky, and fall back to the earth in the form of light rain. Among the water vapor, Asuka could see a single leaf flutter by, a hole in the shape of a perfect circle cut into its middle.

'Don't worry Ed, I have good aim too...'


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three  
"Thanks for everything, Granny," Ed picked up his trunk of necessities  
"Sure"  
"Where's Winry?" Al asked  
"She has been working overnight for several days in a row. Want me to go wake her up?" Granny offered  
"That's ok, that's ok" Ed interrupted. "She'll just nag at me about making sure to do maintenance, and whatever. Bye" They set off.  
"Listen" Granny added "come back once in a while and have dinner with us"  
"Ok"  
"Heh, you want us to come all this way into the mountains to have dinner?"  
"Ed, Al, Asuka," Winry appeared on the balcony "Come back soon"  
"Sure" And they headed down the hill and made their way towards the train station

"It burned up completely, huh?" Ed attempted to pick up a burnt book, but it disintegrated on the spot  
"Major Armstrong" An unfamiliar voice called out. Asuka turned to face a young, blond man and a brunette woman, who appeared to be the speaker.  
"Oh, if it isn't 2nd Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh. What's the matter?"  
"You have been ordered to report to the Command Center" The woman responded  
"We will be taking over for you in escorting Edward Elric" The man continued  
"Hmm, very well" Armstrong said as his custom pink sparkle popped up  
"What is this?" Ed complained "Here I thought I could finally get away from the stuffy old guy, and now, we've got _another_ escort?"  
"As far as the library incident, there is someone who is well acquainted with the materials at the first branch" 2nd Lieutenant Ross turned out to be the woman. They had introduced themselves after everyone got into their car. "Although she is no longer working there"  
"Doesn't sound very hopeful" Ed doubted  
"Did you need something?" Al asked after a few moments of silence, when he noticed Sergeant Brosh was staring at him.  
"Oh, um, forgive me for asking, but why are you wearing that suit of armor?"  
Ed and Al immediately tensed up

"That's just what he does"

"That's just what I do"

They said at the same time. What idiots, Asuka thought, if they didn't act so suspicious, then nobody would suspect them.

"Ah, Al, isn't the view here pretty?" Ed acted completely oblivious to the whispering officers. It's so obvious he's trying to change the subject, it's sad.

"It sure is Brother" Al played along

When they arrived at their destination, they were greeted with thousands of books stacked up to the ceiling

"Wh-what's with this mountain of books?" Ed stuttered out

"Is there really someone living here?" Brosh asked. Everyone began to search, but since there were so many stacks, the books not only restricted movement, but the stacks were placed so close together that it also made it a pain to walk

"Miss Sheska? Are you here? Miss Sheska?" Ross called out, but was answered by silence.

"Help me..." Al faintly heard. He turned to face the source of the sound. "Help me..."

"Brother, there's someone..." Al began "There's someone buried under there!"

"Dig! Dig! Dig this place up!"

"Hang in there!"

After a long time of back aching digging, they finally discovered the owner of this apartment.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Sheska, or who Asuka assumed was Sheska, apologized continually "I accidentally knocked down a mountain of books. I thought I was going to die under there. Thank you very much!"

"Are you Sheska?" Ed questioned

"Yes"

"The one from the first branch?"

Sheska suddenly gasped, and quickly went to a rant about the beauty of books, and then her life story. Asuka was reminded of Winry's frequent speeches of automail.

"Um there's something we'd like to ask you" Asuka interrupted "Do you remember seeing any research notes belonging to someone named Tim Marcoh?"

"Tim Marcoh... Tim Marcoh... Ah, yes I remember"

"Really?" Ed piped up

"They were handwritten and moreover, they had been shoved in a bookcase in the wrong section, so I remember them well" Sheska continued

"So they really were there!" Ed said in fascination but quickly became depressed "which means, sure enough, they were burned up"

"Do you want to read those research notes?" Sheska questioned

"Yeah, but they burned up... Sorry to have bothered you" Ed got up and headed towards the door

"I remember everything that was in them" Sheska said

A few seconds of silence went by as everyone processed this information.

"EH!"

"Well, I mean, I remember the content of any book I read"

"Are you serious?"

"It will take some time, but do you want me to duplicate them for you?"

Ed grabbed Sheska's hands "THANK YOU BOOKWORM!"

"Worm... you say?"

"Are these cookbooks really research about alchemy?" Asuka asked, five whole days later, when Sheska claimed that the recepies she wrote down were, word-for-word, the research notes of Tim Marcoh. But Asuka was already beginning to doubt her, because on the way to central library, she heard a group of people whispering. She didn't think too much about it until she caught the words "philosopher's stone". She then eavesdropped by pretending to drop all the papers that Sheska wrote and stopping to pick them up.

_"Are you sure they have the stone?" A group member asked_

_ "No. They claim that they have information on the stone, but they're probably just bluffing, trying to get attention, but if you want to check for yourselves, they'll be in that restaurant down the street over there" the speaker pointed to that restaurant down the street "they're just teenagers, though. There's no way a couple of kids have the legendary philosopher's stone. You'll find them easy enough. They really stand out, and they'll be there all day and night"_

But when she told Ed about it, it caused him to call her stupid, which lead to one of their infamous fights.

"Alchemy can be a dangerous art if misused" Ed answered "To prevent that, alchemic research is encrypted. It may look like an ordinary cookbook to the average person, but the actual content can only be understood by the person who wrote it"

"But these are advanced alchemic notes. If only the writer can understand them, how are we gonna crack the code?" Asuka thought they were fighting a pretty hopeless battle right now.

"With knowledge and insight. The rest is intensive, arduous work" Ed flipped a page of the cookbook he was holding

"So we're gonna pull nothing but all-nighters for the rest of the week?"

"Al, there's a section on squab in here!" Ed ignored her

"Pigeons? You don't suppose that means..." Al wondered

"Yeah, it might refer to the green lion, the philosopher's month. Did you bring over Flamel's Codex? Or Lambsprings Concerning the philosopher's stone?"

And the brothers went to work on cracking the code. It made no sense to Asuka so she might as well get some sleep...

"Curse you, Marcoh, this is the devil's research"

"Oh, did you crack the code?" Asuka wondered. It's been 10 days and she was getting pretty restless.

"The ingredients for a philosopher's stone are... live humans! What's worse, in order to create one stone, it requires multiple sacrifices"

"What? They're holed up in their rooms again tonight?" Armstrong asked, several hours later, having just received the whereabouts of Asuka and the Elric brothers.

"Yes, they haven't eaten all that much"

"Hmm, their fatigue must have caught up with them. Lately, they seemed to have devoted all their energy into this."

Meanwhile...

"Brother, go get yourself and Asuka something to eat" Al said. Ed laid on the sofa, feet dangling off the edge. Asuka sat next to Ed's head, asleep.

"Don't want anything" Ed replied "What a pain, huh? You know, it's kinda like, just when we think it's within reach, it slips away from us. When it's finally within our grasp, we get kicked down by whatever we've caught... God must really hate people who commit taboos... I wonder if we'll be like this the rest of our lives... Al, but I've been too afraid to mention it-"

He was interrupted by the extreme pounding on the door. Asuka jumped so violently, her whole body left the couch for a second, before sitting back down.

"Elric brothers! I know you're in there! It is I! Open up! Asuka!"

"What do we do?" she asked

"Ignore him, just ignore-"

However, he was interrupted again as Armstrong broke the door off of it's hinges. He clutched the handle in one hand. The other resting on the wall. "I heard, Edward Elric! What a tragedy! To think that such a terrible secret was being concealed by the philosopher's stone!" anime tears ran down from Armstrong's eyes. "Imagine the military conducting something like that! The truth can be a cruel thing at times!"

Ed gasped in realization

"The truth? Al, do you remember what Marcoh said back then? The truth within the truth... What we see on the surface is only a fraction of the real thing. There's more."

Armstrong brought out a map when Ed requested one. "Currently, there are four alchemy laboratories within Central which have connections to the government. From among those, Marcoh worked at the third Laboratory. That one is the most suspicious"

"Hm-mm, we went around to all the laboratories in the city, but they weren't doing any remarkable research-"

"Here," Asuka pointed at a building with a red X over it, interrupting Ed "What is this building?"

"That was the building for the 5th laboratory, but it's currently not in use. There's a risk of it collapsing, so it has been declared off limits."

"It's here" Asuka was confident. "There's a prison next to it. They'd have condemned criminals in a prison. Officially, they could say they were executed..."

"You don't mean the prisoners were the ingredients...?"

"And if prisons from other jurisdictions were involved..." Ed followed Asuka's train of thought.

"This could become a highly political issue." Armstrong said after he rolled up the map. "I shall look into this. In the meantime, 2nd Lieutenant, Sergeant, speak of this to no one. And you kids, behave yourselves."

Ed and Al jumped. They seriously need to learn how to do a poker face.

"Look here, you three, you were just thinking of sneaking into this building and think about looking around inside, weren't you?"

"No we weren't, no we weren't!" Ed and Al made a feeble denial

Asuka slipped through her door and past the brother's door with swiftness of a ghost. She had on a grey hoodie and short shorts on as to not attract too much attention. She tied the end of the rope made of bed sheets that she had prepared earlier onto the sofa and threw the other end of the rope out the window. Asuka then propped one leg out of the window and was about to descend...

"Where do you think you're going?"

Asuka turned to face him "Out"

"At this hour?" Ed questioned farther

"..."

"I promise not to tell Major Armstrong if me and Al can tag along"

"Fine. But we're going to that restaurant down the street over there first, and then we're going to the fifth laboratory"

"Not that stupid assumption of yours again..." Ed complained

"I'm just asking you to go with me, dumbass blond!" Asuka hissed "So suck it up!"

"Fine. I'll go get Al"

After running for a couple of minutes, they stood in front of a very cozy looking restaurant. The sign on the front door said "24 h"

"Somehow, I thought that this restaurant would be more... I don't know... more bar-ish? From the way that group was talking about it..." Asuka commented "Anyway, "Both of you are well known throughout Central so they will recognize you if you confront them. You two just find a seat far off and... never mind. I take that back. Al would stay outside and wait. A suit of armour will attract too much attention"

"Sorry Al, but what she says is reasonable, for once. So I'll go in with her" Ed agreed

"Oh, and Ed, I need to borrow your state alchemist pocket watch. Just in case..."

"So you want to know about the philosopher's stone?" The teen, who appeared to be the gang leader, asked. That group member wasn't correct at all. The gang did not stand out at all. They just looked, and dressed like normal teenagers, so Asuka had to rely on her woman's intuition and, by a stroke of luck, she got it right on the first try. It was a trio of teens. One wore a green hat, one had a piercing on his left ear and one wore a purple shirt.

"Yeah!" Asuka switched to her charming side "While I was walking by on the street one day, I heard some rumours that you had information on the stone and here's where I'd find you. So I was wondering if you could teach me about it"

Ed stared at Asuka's back from his seat 8 meters away. His orange juice sat on the table, forgotten

"Please! I gotta know!" Asuka pleeded

"Hmph, we don't know anything about it. Hurry up and get lost" Piercing continued

"C'mon, don't be like that..." Asuka wined

"You're nosey. Kids like you should be in bed already." He waved her off

This is bad, she thought

"I get the feeling she's gonna crack soon..." Ed mumbled to himself, taking a sip of his drink.

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore!" Ed choked on his orange juice after hearing this, causing him to spray it out

"Hey... You really aren't..." Purple shirt commented after checking her out "I've taken a liking to you..."

"Oh, really?" Asuka summoned all her will not to sack him right then and there, but to maintain her girly appearance. "Will you tell me about it, then?"

"But really, we can't just give it away for free..." he stared at her thighs

"Um, if you want money, I have a bit..." Asuka offered

"Money's good" he said and stood up "But I was thinking of something more like this" He tried to put his arm around her, but she quickly ducked and spun out of his reach

"But that's kind of scary..." Asuka pouted. If she was forced to say any more of this, she was going to crack. Ed started banging his head on the table. He really hoped she wouldn't crack and his juice, once again, lay forgotten on the table.

"I really don't know much about that stuff..." Asuka continued. "Money's really no good...?"

"You just said you were not a kid, right?"

"Sniff... sniff... I lied to my family" Asuka looked down, fake crying. Her hands went up to wipe away imaginary tears

"Huh, what's this all of a sudden?"

"Hic... sniff... hic... hic... the philosopher's stone's my last hope..." Her elbow bumped into her pocket, causing Ed's state alchemist pocket watch to 'accidentally' fall out and hang in plane view. "So... sniff... Can't you help me?" She made a puppy dog face, causing purple shirt to blush, obviously fallen for her. Ed continued to bang his head against the table. Feelings of fierce protection ran through him. If that thing dare touched her, he was going to have Ed to deal with.

"Well, stop crying for now"

"Because... sniff... I..." Asuka covered her face and continued to fake cry

"That's a state alchemist pocket watch, isn't it?" Green hat whispered to the leader. "We might be able to pick up some good money from her"

"H-hey" Purple shirt tried to calm her down

"Come on, stop that annoying crying" Piercing complained "We'll tell you about it"

"Thank you mister!"

"How about we step outside, then" he suggested "We can't talk about it here. Let's go"

They led her out the restaurant and down the street into a dark alley. "Here's good" Piercing said "There's no one to get in the way"

"Then-" Asuka began hopefully

"First of all, give us the cash you have, and all of it"

"Um, I prepared some, but giving it all is..."

"Huh, you want to know about the philosopher's stone, right? So pay up already!"

"Yeah, that's right, better hand it over" The other two agreed "Or maybe we should strip you and take it from your clothes?"

Purple shirt and green hat grabbed her, an arm apiece. "We've been waiting in that restaurant for two friggin' weeks, and finally an idiot comes along. Truth is, we don't know anything about the stone-"

But at that, Asuka snapped at the new information and electrocuted everything within a 5 meter radius around her. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep from killing you in that restaurant?" Blue-white electric currents were appearing here and there "Do you have any idea how hard it was to play along and act like that? I basically gave up all my pride so that you can tell me about the stone, but you turn out to be fakes?" Asuka ranted, even though they were all knocked out and could no more hear anything than the wall beside her

"Good thing you ended it" Ed's voice rang out "I was just about to attack them, and if you hadn't snapped, I would have murdered them gruesomely. Asuka..." He looked serious"... Never do something that reckless again"

"Too late. You already promised me we were going to laboratory 5. Go get Al, and let's go"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"So, how are we getting in?" Asuka asked when she saw the barbed wire on top of the high, metal wall. The door was heavily locked and suspicious since there was a guard there too. Who would want to guard a building that is abandoned unless something suspicious is going on? "Magnetic fields are involved with electricity to a certain extent, so I can easily get up there, but they would notice the light. They'd notice the light from the transmutic reaction if you want to create your own entrance too."

"In that case..." Ed hopped on Al's hands and Al flung him up onto the wall. Ed grabbed the barbed wire with his automail hand, torn it, and made a gap in the fence of wire.

Al flung Asuka up next and she landed lightly next to Ed. He then threw the bundle of wire down so Al can grab it and climb up. They then jumped on the laboratory's lawn, and made their way across it towards the building.

"It's locked up here too?" Ed asked after looking at the patched up door, before realizing a small air vent hole. He climbed on Al and easily removed the dusty screen. "Sorry Al, it looks like only me and Asuka can fit through" Asuka climbed up too and entered after Ed.

"Awwww... I must look so uncool..." Asuka complained. The air vent brought back memories of the eighth angel, the day that Tokyo 3 stood still.

"Damn, it's even tighter in here than I thought..." Ed ignored her "I couldn't have gotten through here if I was regular-sized... Luckily, my body's smaller." Realization hit him with the force of a cement bus going down a steep hill at 60 miles an hour. "AH! I JUST CALLED MYSELF SMALL!"

"Get over it" Asuka responded

After another few minutes of crawling through the spider web filled vent, they finally reached another screen. Ed kicked it off and jumped down, landing on the floor of a small hallway. Asuka landed next to him.

"There are lights on..." Ed noticed "Not currently in use, my foot. Bingo"

They walked on. Following the lights until they came to a large room. The centre had some kind of transmutation circle on it with a regular polygon in the middle. At each edge, or where the edges were supposed to be, of the polygon, there was instead another 5 circles smeared with dried red liquid that Asuka assumed was blood.

"What is this? Is it possible that this is for transmuting a philosopher's stone?" Ed wondered out loud

"That is correct" Another voice rang out. Ed and Asuka's heads whipped to face the speaker, who entered the room from another entrance. He was holding a Japanese katana and was wearing armour, just like Al appeared to be. "I don't know who you kids are, but if you can tell that just from looking at the transmutation circle..."

"Who are you, pops?" Ed interrupted

"I'm the one charged with guarding this place. I'll go by the name 'Number 48' for now" The suit of armour answered, slowly making his way towards Ed and Asuka "And by the way, I'm not your pop. I have orders to dispose of any outsiders that come in here. Don't think ill of me, kids"

"I could say the same" Asuka answered as Ed clapped his hands together and ran his left hand over his automail one, which immediately turned into a blade. "Don't think ill of us when you're defeated by 'kids'"

"Hmph, so Blondie over here's an alchemist, are you?" 48 moved in a flash, appeared less than a foot away from Ed, sword at the ready "Let's look at what you've got..." He swung, but Ed ducked in time and parried his attack and leapt away "Your prosthetic arm just saved your life..." He swung at Asuka, as she was closer to him than Ed was now. She ducked too, but instead of jumping away, she grabbed him around the waist into what seemed like a hug, but irregular flashes of purple-white light appeared and electrified him so hard, that no normal human being would be conscious after that attack. But the suit of armour didn't appear, nor feel like a normal human being, and her woman's intuition was telling her create some distance between them, so she leapt away and joined Ed's side.

"Good perception. If you were one second late, your pretty head will be rolling on the floor right now"

"Damn, it doesn't seem like normal electricity can hurt him" Asuka noted "And railgun takes too long, and even if I did manage to use it, the building will be likely to collapse... So then..." Asuka stretched out her hand, palm facing down, and what appeared to be black sand rose from the ground and swarmed around her hand, and created a long, black, sword like object. She swung it around, and the black sand still stayed in the sword like shape, and she charged into 48 and swung. 48 ducked, but the black sword cut through one of his metal horns on his helmet.

"What? That's not fair! I thought your field of alchemy was only associated with electricity! So how can you control sand as well?" Ed asked, unable to believe it  
"You should at least be able to guess why" Asuka replied, but after still seeing Ed's confused face, she sighed." Seriously, and you call yourself an alchemist... Think, dumbass! What makes up an atom?"  
"What? That's easy. Protons, neutrons and..." he trailed off, comprehension washing over him  
"I see..." 48 began "since electrons radiate electric energy, you take full advantage of that and can make any object, since everything is made of atoms, move. you make the sand around this place vibrate at extreme speeds and then force that into a shape of a sword. So your sword can cut through everything it touches."  
"I prefer to use sand..." asuka said "The smaller the object, the less resistance it provides against the atmosphere, therefore, the faster it moves for me. Sand is easiest but is also unfortunately the only thing I can control so far with this technique..." she admitted. Ed broke the moment of stillness by charging into 48. He leapt away, the chains around his waist banged on his armour, and created a hollow sound.

"Let me guess, pops, you're hollow on the inside, aren't you? That's why electricity doesn't hurt you." Ed assumed

"I'm impressed that you realized that" the armour replied

"I spar against someone like you all the time, you see"

"Oh, so there are those on the outside like me too, aren't there?"

"Well, that's annoying. Imagine some other idiot out there who came up with the idea of bonding a soul to a suit of armour!"

"Let me introduce myself again." 48 began "'48' is my condemned prisoner number. In life... or should I say, back when I had a living body, I was known as Slicer, the mass murderer."

"So you _are_ a condemned prisoner" Asuka confirmed her assumption "Tell me, they used condemned prisoners in this place as ingredients to make philosopher's stones, right?"

"It is difficult for me to answer" Slicer said "they recognized my skills, gave me this body, and made me the watchdog of this place."

"Which means that you have a seal that serves as the medium between soul and armour"

"Yes, that is correct" 48 opened his helmet. If it was any normal person, Asuka would have seen the face. But Slicer wasn't normal, so instead, they saw a circle at the back of the helmet that was similar to Al's seal. "This bloodseal. If you destroy this, you win."

"It's very kind of you to show us your week point" Ed pointed out

"I'm the type that seeks out a little tension during a fight, you see"

"As long as you're being kind, you think you might let us go?" Ed wondered "I figure I might as well ask"

"There's no way a mass murderer would do nothing, and let his pray escape, when it's right in front of him" 48 put it simply and tightened his grip on his sword "Here I go"

They charged into each other. Ed swung his blade/automail arm at 48, but he parried the blow with his katana. A sudden rush of pain shot through Ed's shoulder. 'What's this' he thought 'My arm feels out of sorts' 48 took the opportunity to ram his shoulder into Ed's body, and since 48 had more mass than Ed, even though he was hollow, that made Ed fly across the room. Asuka made a wide swing, and 48 tried to parry this one too, but when the two blades made contact, Asuka's chainsaw like characteristic went into effect and cut off 3 centimetres off the tip of Slicer's sword.

"Hmph, what an annoying ability... I'll have to kill you off first, then" the suit of armour decided, and jabbed his sword, aiming for Asuka's throat while Asuka's arm was still trying to revert to it's original position. "That's too bad... You had such talent, but you wasted it on the unnecessary movements and wide swings"

'Damn, she won't make it in time,' Ed thought, getting up and running towards her, 'I won't make it in time either?' The tip of Slicer's blade was 4 centimetres from Asuka's neck. 'I couldn't save her either?' 3 centimetres 'Why can't I be faster...?' 2 centimetres were left, but Ed was still a good 4 metres away. 1 centimetre...

Then, another piece of Slicer's sword flew into the air, not attached to the handle. 'Asuka was still alive?' Ed thought 'And how is she holding a black whip like thing now?'

"Oh, did you think that the sand was restricted only to form a shape of a sword?" Asuka asked, the her new whip floated in the air, which made it look alive. Ed caught up to them and attacked 48. His automail arm didn't have as much agility to it anymore and every move Ed made with it struck him with a rush of pain. Slicer counter-attacked and made a cut across Ed's left shoulder. 48 then went offensive and forced Ed to back up to a wall. Asuka waved her whip and it made it's way towards the back of 48's head. But he sensed it coming and leapt away.

"Ed, are you ok?" She ran to his side

"Yeah, I'm fine" He chose not to tell her about the arm. That would only make him seem weak.

"Given your wound and exhaustion, I can see the end of the battle. Meanwhile, my partner would be finishing off your buddy"

"Is that companion of yours strong?" Ed asked

"Yes, he's strong, but he's still weaker than I am though"

Ed relaxed and started to laugh. "In that case, I've got nothing to worry about. I've been fighting him for a long time now, and I've never beaten him!"

"Oh, he's good, is he? Then I have to hurry up and finish you two" He made his way towards Ed and Asuka.

Ed eyed his opponent carefully, then yelled "Al! Now!"

"What?"

Asuka took this opportunity to slash her whip like a sword, and it knocked off 48's helmet.

"That was dirty!" 48 complained

"All's fair in love and war" Asuka replied

48's body collapsed on the ground and Ed transmuted his blade back into an arm. Asuka made another slash with her weapon, and the black sand disappeared.

"What's the matter? You still haven't destroyed my bloodseal. Hurry up and destroy-"

Ed picked him up. Well, the helmet part anyway. "There's something we need to ask you about" Ed begun

"The philosopher's stone?"

"Why don't you tell us everything you know about it?" Ed offered

"I can't" 48 stated the obvious

"Hey now, beaten dogs don't get to show me up"

"I haven't been beaten yet" Asuka then noticed the headless body of armour, sword in it's hands and aimed it at her back. But she dodged too late and the sword grazed the side of her stomach, making a deep cut across her side. Her left hand flew to her wound and pressed against, trying to stop the bloodflow.

"Impossible!" Ed gaped, unable to believe it

"Forgot to mention, this mad murderer, Slicer... Was actually a pair of brothers"

"An independent head and body? That's cheating!" Asuka complained

"Who was it that said there is no such thing as dirty in a fight?" 48 made his come-back

"Now, lets begin the second round, supermodel and short stuff"

"I AM NOT SHORT!" Ed

But the second round didn't last very long. 48's torso left his legs and rolled on the ground, where black sand was swarming around. Ed looked at Asuka and saw that she was kneeled down, right palm on the ground.

"Did I mention, I can also do long distance, as long as the object is connected somewhat?" She asked. She now had to breath in deep breaths.

"I hate to admit it, but we lost" the head said

"You're not going to tell me you're actually three brothers, are you" Ed asked suspiciously. Asuka was losing a lot of blood, she was feeling dizzy and was losing her sense of balance.

"No, no. As a parting gift, I'll tell you everything. They'll kill us anyway, when they find out we lost" the helmet continued "The ones who made the philosopher's stone, and ordered us to protect this place-"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence. Two long spear-like substances pierced his bloodseal, instantly silencing him

"That was a close one..." a new voice rang out. The two spears retracted into the other side of the room, where there was a single woman, her middle and index stabbing through 48's head "Number 48, we can't have you speaking out of turn..."

"Oh my. What are the Fullmetal pipsqueak and a girl I haven't heard about doing here?" Another person, Asuka can't tell their gender, appeared beside the woman. "Such trying people. How did you find out about this place?"

The woman split the helmet in half. "Brother? Brother? BROTHER?" the torso called out in anguish, until he is silenced by the he-she stabbing 48's sword into his bloodseal. He-she then slowly made their way towards Ed and Asuka. The woman followed.

"Who are you people?" Ed questioned. But Asuka fainted then and there, from blood loss. "Asuka!"

"Oh my, the pipsqueak is raring to go"

"You shut up about the pipsqueak talk!"

"A pipsqueak is a pipsqueak, right, pipsqueak?" It quickly dodged Ed's kick aimed at his face. "Whoa, I don't like fighting. It's painful when you get hurt, you know?"

"You're the one who picked this fight" Ed was gonna have to fight alone now... "And I accept-"

But he was interrupted by a loud pop. His automail arm dropped to hang from his shoulder, now, nothing but a piece of dead weight.

"Looks like you have a malfunction" The woman pointed out

"Whoo-hoo, lucky me!" It cheered as it grabbed Ed's braid and kicked him in the gut. "You're fortunate your arm broke. You're getting off without being hurt too badly" It dropped him and he fell to the floor beside Asuka.

"Listen boy, don't forget that you and your girlfriend are being allowed to live" The woman stated "We can't have them showing up again. Let's burn this place down" she suggested to It.

That was all Ed heard until his vision faded to darker than black.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Asuka woke up in a soft bed in some sort of white room. Probably a hospital, she decided.

"Oh, I see you're awake now" Asuka turned her head and saw Ed looking at her, all bandaged up and sitting on the other hospital bed in the room. "The doctor said you lost a lot of blood, but you'll make a full recovery"

"How long has it been?" she asked

"We went to laboratory 5 last night. But it was blown up by someone and destroyed now"

"Sigh... And we were so close too..." she tried to sit up, but intense pain shot through her side. Her hand flew to it, and found her tiny waist to be bandaged.

"My automail arm quit working in the end. So I called Winry to come and fix it early this morning. She should be arriving in a few hour-"

But he was interrupted by the subject bursting through the door, her tool case fell to the floor when Winry saw the state Asuka and Ed were in. Armstrong, Ross, and Brosh entering after her.

"Th-that was fast" Ed stated the obvious "Now, you're going to charge me for express service, right?"

"Well, I didn't service your automail just right," Winry said in a small voice "So it broke, and you got yourself this seriously injured, right?"

"It-it's not _your_ fault Winry" Ed defended her "The cause of this is me using it in a reckless way. Your maintenance was as flawless as it always is" He paused to catch his breath "Besides, you could say that because my arm broke, I got out of it without being hurt even worse. Don't worry about it, okay? Okay?"

A pause. Then, Winry was once again all cheerfull. "Alright, let's get right to discussing this service call" She sounded happy and enthusiastic. "I will be including a rush order fee, of course" But then, she noticed Ed's lunch tray. "You left your milk again"

Ed looked away "I hate milk"

"You're going to be a beansprout forever because you keep saying that!" Winry clutched her head. She sure has a lot of mood swings...

"SHUT UP! IF I HATE IT, I HATE IT!"

"YOU'RE BEING INCONSIDERATE AGAIN, EDWARD ELRIC!" Armstrong appeared out of nowhere and flexed his muscles. When did he strip?

"Every child drinks it" Ross added

"If you don't drink your milk, you won't be popular with the girls" Brosh continued

The next day, Asuka woke up to Ed eyeing his tray resentfully.

"You're here again today, are you, you bastard" Ed was now talking to his milk? He must be going crazy...

"Brother, you have a living body... so you have to drink it" Al was sitting at the other side of the room

"If I hate it, I hate it. It may not look like it, but I _have _grown some"

It was then that Asuka noticed. "Hey, Ed, stand up" she got up too. She was recovering rapidly, and could walk again. She went to Ed's side, less than a foot separating them, and kept on inching closer and closer to him, her full lips slightly parted. Ed stared into her eyes and had to agree with all the other men that met her: she really was cute. But that was only her physical appearance... There was less than an inch between their noses now. He could feel the heat that radiated from her body, causing his heart to beat quicker. Ed blushed and closed his eyes, preparing for what was going to happen.

"Impossible! We're the same height now?"

Ed's eyes snapped open. Asuka was now standing a metre away from him, arms crossed across her chest and the expression on her face was openly telling everyone that she was unable to believe it.

"W-well, I've been telling everyone that I have grown, but everyone still calls me shorty, shorty" Ed sat back down on his bed, trying to recover, but the blush on his face was still evident and his heart rate still didn't slow. "I wish I was like you, Al. Your body as big as it is..."

Al jumped up, knocking over his stool. "I didn't get this body because I wanted it!" he announced, just as the door was opening, revealing Winry and Hughes.

"S-sorry. You're right" Ed felt awkward. This was just not his day... "It's my fault that you ended up like this too, isn't it? That's why I want to get you in your original body"

"Can you guarantee that you'll really get my original body back?"

"I'll get you back, believe me!"

"Believe you?" Al sounded furious "What am I supposed to believe, when I'm in this hollow body? I mean, when you boil it down, memories are just a bunch of information! It should be possible to artificially construct them!"

"What are you talking about?" Ed couldn't believe it.

"Brother, you told me before that there was something that you were too afraid to talk to me about, right? Was it, by any chance, that I... my soul and memories were all really counterfeits that you just invented? And that you, Winry, and Granny... are all trying to fool me, aren't you...? How about it, Brother?"

Ed slammed his fists on his lunch tray "Did you have all that pent up all this time?" He asked in a small voice, his body shaking "Is that everything you wanted to say?" Then, he was still again, as if given up. "Okay" He pushed his lunch trolley away, and slowly walked past his brother, out of the room.

"Al, you..." Winry began. Al turned to face her, but was greeted with a wrench to the face. "...IDIOT!"

"Wh-where did that suddenly come from?" Al got knocked to the floor. Winry was breathing heavily, and tears formed in her eyes, spilled over, and trailed down her cheeks "Winry?"

"Al, you idiot!" the wrench made contact with his forehead "You have no idea how Ed feels! You know what Ed was so afraid to tell you about? Whether or not you resent him for what happened!" She fell to the ground, and kept on tapping her wrench onto Al's chest. "And... and yet, you just had to...! In what world do you find someone so dumb that he's prepared to give his own life to create a fake brother?" The wrench clattered to the floor. Winry's hand too weak to hold it. "You two brothers are all you've got, aren't you?" She tried to wipe away her tears, then pointed to the door. "Now, go after him!" Al slowly got up from the floor "Run!"

"Right!" And he sprinted down the hall.

"Winry," Asuka said "you were really close to them, right?"

"Yep... sniff... sniff... We were neighbours, but they're like brothers to me. After my parents passed away, they were everything to me, and they're the only ones left for me. Sniff" Asuka chose to say nothing, but felt pity for her. Maybe because she was also an orphan, and those who suffered the same pain bond easily...

"No. They are not the only ones left for you. You have more friends. You have Granny, Major Armstrong, Mr Hughes, and you have me..." Asuka stopped. Why was she saying all of this? The old Asuka would have slapped her across the face and told her to get over it, just like how young Asuka dealt with the death of her mother. She would have yelled at Winry, called her weak, and slapped her some more... So why didn't Asuka have any desire to do that now?

"Follow me" Winry said after a pause and disappeared through the door.

"Eh? Where are we going?" Asuka ran to catch up with her.

"I'm following Al, of course!" She replied cheerfully

"...We fought a lot, ever since we were little, huh?" Ed's voice traveled from the open balcony door.

"Mm-hmm" Al agreed. Asuka could now see that both brothers were lying down on the balcony floor, heads together.

"Thinking back on it now, we fought over some stupid things"

"Like who got the top or bottom of the bunk beds" Al listed

"Yeah."

"We even fought over candy, huh?"

"And we squabbled over that toy"

"I won that one. And when we were playing at Rain River, too." Al added

"I got pushed into the river, didn't I?" Ed remembered

"We fought when we were training too, huh?"

"Teacher told us we were making too much noise, she beat us half to death. That one was a draw"

"We even fought over which one of us was going to marry Winry" Asuka snorted at that

"Eh? I don't remember that!" Ed denied

"I won. But she shot me down"

"Oh, yeah?" There was a few moments of silence, then Ed spoke up again. "And you're telling me those were all lies?"

"I'm sorry" Al apologized.

"You're saying that your feeling of wanting to get your body back, no matter what, is also fake?"

"It's not fake"

"That's right. The two of us decided to get back to normal together. We're going to keep pushing forward. Push forward, and make our hearts and fighting skills stronger"

"What about milk?" Al laughed

"I'll drink... As much as I can..." Asuka doubted that. "Let's go and get much, much stronger" The two brothers fist bumped in the air. Automail against armour.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"So, I don't remember anything after this one..." Ed gestured to his crappy drawing of the It "...Kicked me"

It's already been three days of Asuka sharing the same hospital room with Ed. She now sat beside Ed on his bed, trying to explain everything that happened at laboratory 5 that day.

"Guardians who were only souls, a precious sacrifice, and him letting you live..." Armstrong repeated all that he heard

"Uroboros tattoos, a philosopher's stone's transmutation circle, and Mr. Marcoh saying they used stones in Ishval..." Hughes continued

"There are too many mysteries here for just a simple experiment"

"There's no way to investigate any farther, what with the lab being just a pile of rubble" Hughes sighed "If I root around in the criminal lists at the court-material office, something might turn up"

"I shall look into those who were working under Mr Marcoh in researching the stone" Armstrong offered, but he was interrupted by someone knocking on the door of the hospital room, then the door opened to reveal Fuhrer Bradley standing in the doorway.

Everyone tensed, immediately saluted him and greeted "Fuhrer King Bradley!"

"Ah, keep your voice down. As you were" he seemed like a really nice and polite man.

"Your Excellency, what are you doing here?" Hughes questioned

"What, do you ask? Visiting a sick friend. Do you like melons?" He asked, offering a melon inside a basket to Ed

"Yeah, thanks" Ed tried not to be rude, then he remembered who he was talking to "I mean...!"

"I understand you've been checking up on the senior staff members" Bradley got right to the case "Major Armstrong"

"Sir? Um, er, Sir, how did you know?" Shock displayed itself on Armstrong's face

"Don't underestimate my information network. And Edward Elric..." Bradley changed his voice to a serious tone faced Ed "... the philosopher's stone?" Sweat beads began to form on Ed's forehead "What have you found out? Depending on how much you've learned..." Many tense moments passed, Ed refusing to answer. Then Bradley started... _laughing?_

"Just kidding! You needn't be so defensive!" He put his hand on Ed's shoulder

"Huh?"

"I know that there are some unrest among the ranks. I think that something must be done about it" He picked up a stack of Ed's notes that were lying on the table and flipped the front page "A list of those who were researching the philosopher's stone. All of these men have gone missing. They disappeared several days before the fifth laboratory collapsed. The enemy is always a step ahead of us. And even with my information network, as it currently stands, I have no handle on the enemy's size, their objectives, or how far they've penetrated us"

"In other words, it's quite dangerous to be poking around" Hughes translated

"Mm-hmm. Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, Major Armstrong, Elric brothers and little girl, I've determined you to be the people that I can trust. I will not permit you to stick your noses any farther into this matter, nor speak of this to anyone!" Bradley ordered "Under the present circumstances, we can't tell friend from foe, you cannot trust anyone! Consider everyone in the military to be the enemy and act discreetly! However..." he paused, then smiled "...when the time comes, I will have much work for you to do, so see that you are ready"

"Yes, sir"

"Excellency!" An unknown voice traveled down the hall "Where is His Excellency, the Fuhrer?"

"Uh-oh, my pesky subordinates have come after me" he opened the window and prepared to jump out "I secretly slipped out of work, you see" he explained "Well, farewell!" He jumped, landed on the grassy plane, and walked away

"Ed!" Winry entered the room through the door, and saw everyone gathered at the window "Huh...? What's wrong, everyone?"

"Nothing, a storm just passed through" Ed stated

Winry closed the door behind her. "I bought the tickets you asked me to. The train tomorrow, at noon is okay, right?"

"Yeah, thank you"

"My, you sure are on the go" Armstrong commented "You haven't even completely healed"

"You expect us to stay in this disinfectant-reeking place forever?"

"Where are you going now?" Hughes asked Winry "Dublith?"

"Yeah! I talked it over with Al and Asuka, and we're going to go see our teacher" but at that, Al started shivering

"From what they told me about Ms Izumi, I want to go meet her and see her for myself" Asuka added

"I sure am scared, Brother" Al said in a small voice. They grabbed each other's hands, holding on for dear life "I'm sure she's gonna kill us!"

"D-don't wimp out, little brother! I'm scared too!"

"Who is this teacher of yours?" Winry asked

"Still quite a distance beyond Dublith" Armstrong commented

"Whereabouts?" Winry asked

"Let's see..." Al marked the spot on the map with his finger "...Here. Right in the middle of the southern area" there was a pause. Then, out of nowhere, Winry screamed

"W-what?"

She pointed on the map "Here, here! Just before Dublith!" Winry went into her otaku mode "The holy land of automail, Rush Valley! I've always wanted to go there! Take me! Take me! Take me! Take me!~" She wined to Ed like a five year old child who just saw a new brand of candy.

"Go there on your own" Ed replied, annoyed

"But who will pay for my traveling expenses?"

"Are you trying to mooch off of me?" He accused

"Now, now, what's the harm? It's on our way, and all" Al broke up the fight

"If you insist..." Ed turned away from Winry and crossed his arms

"Hooray!" Winry exploded "I'll go call Granny" and exited the room

"What made you suddenly want to see your teacher?" Asuka questioned, after the four of them found an empty booth and settled down. Ed and Asuka on one side, Winry sitting beside Al on the other

"There are two reasons" Ed began "Lately, we've been on a real losing streak"

"Huh, you're going there because you want to improve your fighting?" Winry asked "What are you? Fighting fools?"

"No, dumbass, it's not as simple as that! It's not just the fighting, it's what's inside us, you might say. Right?" He turned to Al

"Yeah. Anyhow, we feel like if we go see our teacher, it will help to strengthen us somehow"

"Same. Maybe I can perfect railgun somehow, if I meet her" Asuka began "I still can't fire coins past 3 times a minute"

"I want to get even stronger" Ed's eyes shown with determination

"What's the second reason?" Winry asked

"To ask our teacher about the philosopher's stone" Ed replied simply

"The truth within the truth" Al continued "We never did end up figuring out what it was. Our teacher might know something about it"

"We can't afford to be concerned about appearances now" Ed said fiercely "We have to be ready for Teacher to kill us, and ask her..." Ed lost his fierceness "ask her... ask her... Our lives sure have been short, huh?" Ed mourned

"I wish I could have at least found a girlfriend" Al added

"What kind of a teacher do you have...?" Winry repeated

Several hours passed, the day disappeared well into the night. Asuka finally fell asleep, several hours after Winry had passed out against the window, and is once again leaning on Ed's left shoulder. Ed had been too worried about seeing his teacher to sleep, but the warm weight on his shoulder comforted him. Her bangs brushed against his neck. Ed couldn't understand why his pulse was quickening. It did that every time he thought of her. Her perfect, fiery red hair, her big and deep blue eyes, her well shaped nose, and her full lips, now slightly parted, less than a half a foot away from his. Ed has had the desire for a long time now... He has had the desire to... Gah! He's too embarrassed to say it, but to hug her. To hold her close to him, and to kiss her

"Brother, you like Asuka, don't you?" Al said after he noticed Ed staring at Asuka for a long time.

"Wh-what?" Ed yelled, causing Asuka to stir and nuzzle against his neck and collar bone, causing him to blush

"Brother, it's written all over your face. But don't worry, it's understandable. She's very cute"

"Al, why would I fall for a jerk like her?" Ed denied

"Come on, Brother, she's not much of a jerk anymore. She's like a tsundere"

"I don't like her, Al"

"Ok... Whatever you say..." Al said, obviously not believing him.

"Oh! This is good" Asuka commented the next morning after taking a bite out of the apple pie that Winry brought with her "This apple pie is the best! Everything here tastes way better than the 90% artificial things they call food in my world!"

"Mrs Gracia is a very good cook!" Winry said

"I know! The quiche she made for us she made for us was also awfully delicious!" Ed answered her

"Hehe, I put it on the list of things I want to eat when I get my body back" Al said

"She taught me how to make it, so once you get your body back, Al, I'll make it for you!" Winry offered

"All right!"

"Mr Hughes and Mrs Gracia are both really great people" Winry said

"Colonel Hughes is a doting father, a busybody, and annoying to be around" Ed finished his piece of apple pie

"He did always come to your hospital room to give you a hard time, huh, Brother?" Al asked

"Seriously" Ed said with his mouth full, then swallowed "He said he was busy with work, but he would always come to visit me"

"Next time we're there, we ought to thank him somehow"

"Yeah" Ed agreed

Little did they know that, last night, Hughes took his final breath staring at his wife as she shot him.

A/N: Sorry, these chapters have been so boring and short. Please review!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Rush Valley!" Winry screamed when they got to their first destination "Automail! Automail! Automail! Ah! I'm so happy!" They were now sight seeing/ touring the place, having to put up with Winry's constant yapping. "Ah! It's the Gods '11 model!" She pressed herself against the window of the store "I never thought the day would come where I'd behold it with my own eyes!"

"That's the holy land of automail for you" Al said "This place is bustling"

"Feh, why do we have to come out in all this freaking heat and look at automail?" Ed complained "We should have left Winry behind, and gone straight to Dublith" Asuka silently agreed

"You there, do you have a second?"

"Huh?" Ed turned around to a crowd of people admiring his automail arm

"What an unusual model of automail"

"It really is! Everyone, come look at this!"

"H-hey! Hold on! S-stop! S-stop that!" Ed complained as the automail geeks swarmed around him and started stripping him, trying to get a better look at his automail "N-no, don't undo that! Th-thats-!" He made a feeble attempt as his jacket, tank top, and pants went flying into the air

"Everyone's eager to study them" Winry said, as if that apologized for everything

"Stop screwing around!" Ed fought back, now only in his boxers

"Geez" Ed got his pants back on "This is why I can't stand automail engineers" He reached for his jacket in Asuka's arms, but then realized the absence of the familiar weight in his pants pocket

"What is it?" Asuka asked

"It's gone..."

"What is?"

"The thing that proves I'm a state alchemist. My silver watch is gone!"

"What? I don't give a crap about proof that you're a state alchemist, but then you won't have any money to take me shopping if your watch is missing!" Asuka put two and two together.

"Is that all you care about?"

"That must be the work of Paninya" a bystander said

"Paninya?"

"A pickpocket that targets tourists as her marks"

"Do you know where she might be? That thing is important!"

"We'll tell you..." The bystanders began "But in return... Show us your automail again!" Ed transmuted his automail into a blade and threatened them "The shop of an automail engineer named Dominic" They pointed towards the mountains

"They say he lives deep in the mountains" Winry repeated what she heard, all of them sweating bullets in the merciless sun, after an hour of walking "because he can get high quality ores out here. Is this really the right way? They didn't trick us, did they?"

"This is all because you said you wanted to go see that town, you know" Ed said, wiped of all energy he had possessed in that town, dragging himself down the path on the side of the mountain

"It's your own inattentiveness that allowed your watch to be stolen!" Winry accused

"Shut up!" Ed shot back

"Shut up both of you!" Asuka said, extremely irritated because the extra noise was just increasing her headache "I just want Ed to get his silver watch back so he could buy me more clothes. So I'm not in the mood for your bickering"

"When are you ever in the mood for anything?" Ed replied

"What was that?"

"Stop it both of you" Al attempted to break up the blooming fight

"What?"

"Isn't that her?" Al pointed at where there was a wooden drawbridge connecting a mountain to another, where a lone girl was walking down the path. Something round and shiny was clutched in her hand

"I've found you!" Ed exclaimed, and immediately started transmuting a shorter path for him to get to her. Asuka ran after him. The girl, after sensing that she was being chased, broke into a run, but was stopped when Ed transmuted a wall straight from the ground

"Give it back"

"Amazing. Who are you, mister?" She asked

"I'm an alchemist!" Ed transmuted multiple hand shaped things out of the rock beside him, grabbing for Paninya. But she dodged all of them with the skill and agility of an acrobat and got away. She stood on the edge of another mountain, as if waiting for them. Asuka pulled out a coin from her shorts and fired. Paninya jumped, the mountain where she had been seconds before exploded from the force of the railgun.

"If it comes to force, I'd be more than happy to shoot you down" Asuka said

"Amazing, amazing!" She complemented, only edging them on, as they ran after her

"Stop moving around!"

"Come on! Come on! You're starting to breath hard!" She jumped another wall, and landed on the other side of the mountain, where Paninya encountered Al

"I've been waiting for you" Al said, as he transmuted the ground to form a bird cage, trapping Paninya

"Nicely done" Winry commented

"Now, why don't you give me back my watch?" Ed walked slowly towards her, but jumped back, a piece of the cage almost hitting him as Paninya broke through the trap with her right... _automail _leg?

"It's not all that unsual, is it? Not in this town" Paninya put it simply, showing off her leg, where a wide blade stuck out of it "By the way," she began again, right before shooting a canon out of her left aimed at Ed's head "I have a 1.5 inch culverin in my left leg" she click it back into place and ran off

"Wait!" Ed protested

"Haha, just try to catch me!" she teased. However, she was stopped as Winry latched her hand onto Paninya's wrist

"I'm not going to let you get away" Winry stated the obvious

"Nice work, Winry! Don't let go of her!" The trio of alchemists ran to catch up to her

"Yeah, as if I'd let go!" She said confidently, until the automail geek in her surfaced "Not until you let me have a closer look at your automail!"

"Oh, Paninya" a pregnant woman wearing an apron, followed closely by a man the same age as her, opened the door to the small shop "Friends of yours?" She caught sight of Winry jumping up and down, too exited to stop

"N-not exactly..."

"Ahhhhh...! I've never seen automail like this before!" Steam blew from Winry's nose as she overheated. The woman had invited everyone into the shop, and Paninya was showing Winry her artificial legs "This has an advanced suspension, but more than anything, it's the balance! This streamlined design is a true work of art"

"Um, about my silver watch" Ed piped up

"It's no use, Brother" Al said

"I really respect you for being able to make automail like this!" Winry went up to the younger man

"Oh, I'm not the one who made this" he replied, awkwardly

"I am" another voice said, causing Winry to snap her head in the direction it came from, coming face to face with an older, but strong looking man. He then noticed Ed and started to observe his automail. "Isn't this a bit heavy?"

"Yes it is" Winry said

"It's no good to place a strain on your outfitee" the man, who turned out to be Mr Dominic, said from years of experience "That's why this guy's so small, right?"

"Don't call me small!" But he then realized... "So you're saying that if these were made lighter, I would grow taller?"

"It's possible" Dominic admitted, which caused Ed to go into a trance, no doubt thinking about how tall he would grow

"Mr. Dominic, please take me on as an apprentice!" Winry begged

"Not a chance" he shot her down

"But if you just take some time to consider...?"

"Cork it. I don't want apprentices"

"Could you at least see your way to teaching her how to make automail so I can grow taller?" Ed added

"Shut up, water flea" he got up and left

"Sorry about that, my old man is pretty stubborn" Dominic's son apologized

"Water flea... Water flea... Water flea..." Ed kept on chanting, hours later. It had started thunderstorming outside a while and Ed seemed like he lost the will to live, so Al had to drag him around, but stopped at a doorway. Asuka followed, and saw the soon to be mother, Mrs Satera, sitting in a chair, feeling her bulging stomach

"Um, you're having a baby soon, right?" Al asked

"That's right"

"Would it be okay if I touched your tummy?"

"Go ahead" she said, catching the attention of Ed

Al placed his hand on her stomach. Ed and Asuka crowded around, sight seeing. The mother, seeing them just sitting there, offered her hands, and took Asuka's smaller one, and put it next to Ed's on her stomach. So this is how Asuka was like when she was at this stage... her father had been nothing but a sperm donor. From an elite sperm and elite egg, Asuka had been born elite, but had been nothing but clinging onto her identity as a pilot after her mother and only parent... left her... Did her mother love her as much as this mother loves her baby? Had she only been filler material that her mother resorted to when she was unable to have a baby with her true love... What fills the womb, is not related to what fills the heart, right?

"It seems so miraculous somehow" Ed interrupted her thoughts

"Mm-hmm. To think that we were once inside Mom's tummy like this, too" Al added. The woman smiled, but suddenly, her face was filled with pain "Are you okay?"

"Y-yes, but I'm going through labour. The baby's coming"

"Eh? Then, I'll go get Winry, or someone!" Ed offered and ran down the hall

"In this rain, we can't take her to the hospital in town" Dominic said, putting on his coat "I'll dash over there, and call for a doctor" he exited the house

"It's coming!" Satera yelled, unable to stop it

"I-it's coming?" Dominic's son, Mr Ridel repeated

"What do we do? The doctor isn't here yet!"

"We'll just have to do it!" Winry decided

"Do what?" that calmed everyone down

"Deliver it" and everyone freaked out once again

"Have you ever been there when a baby was born?" Ridel asked

"No, we don't have any time to dither around. Everyone help me out here. We're going to deliver this baby!" she tied on her apron "Ed, Al, Asuka, go boil water! Paninya, gather as many towels as you can! Mr Ridel, do you have any disinfectant alcohol?"

"I think there was some in the storeroom"

"Say, is Winry ok in there?" Ridel asked after everyone gathered what they were sent to.

"She comes from a family of doctors. She grew up reading medical-related books instead of picture books" Ed said, having no doubt in what Winry was going to do

"Huh? But it's not like she actually learned anything, did she?"

"I guess whatever she knows, she just vaguely remembers. But all we can do right now is defer to her knowledge and nerve!"

"I know we don't believe in God" Ed said to his fellow alchemists in the hall, after hearing how much pain Satera was going through

"Mm-hmm"

"But just for once, for God's sake, please..." Ed said

"How ironic, we're praying, even though there's no God to pray to..." Asuka muttered.

15 minutes passed... 20 minutes passed... 30 minutes... an hour... Finally, the door opened and Paninya fell out.

"The baby's been born" She said weakly after they entered. And they saw for themselves

"Th-the baby's been born!" Ed repeated "Hooray!"

Asuka saw the little thing, as it cried for the first time, wrapped up in the warmth of it's mother's arms, and couldn't help but feel jealous of it


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"We're finally here, huh?" Ed said as they stepped off the train onto the ground and he led the way to his teacher's place. They had left Winry with Dominic and Parninya in Rush Valley. "It'd be nice if Teacher wasn't home, huh?" Ed sighed when they stopped in front of a butcher shop. The door suddenly opened, and a large man, who reminded Asuka of Major Armstrong, but less blond and more brunette, walked out. That must be their teacher

"Well... Hello there" Al said in a small voice

"How good of you to come. You've grown" the man patted Ed's head.

"Um... I'm Alphonse. Please excuse us for being away for so long" Al replied

There was a pause. Teacher then removed his hand and put it on Al's helmet "You've _really_ grown" He then made his way to the open window on the side, and called "Izumi, the Elric half-prints are here. And they brought a girl along with them. Can you get up?"

"I'm fine. I'm doing a lot better today." A woman's voice traveled out the window.

"She's lying down because she's not doing so well" Al explained to Asuka

"I guess she hasn't gotten any better" Ed added.

Suddenly, the door burst open and a foot emerged from it, kicking Ed in the face with such a force that sent him flying and crashing into a building down the street.

"Stupid pupil of mine!" the monster walked out and yelled at Ed "I hear you've stooped to becoming a Dog of the Military!" She turned her head to face Al and Asuka, who immediately tensed in fear

"Ah, Teacher," Oh, so _that_ was their teacher... "You see... It's like..." Al tried to explain

"Al?" The menacing aura left "You sure have grown bigger" she smiled. Al relaxed, relieved that he wasn't going to be kicked down the street like his brother

"Teacher," He made his way towards her, reaching for her hand to shake it "You seem to be doing well..." but instead of taking his hand, Teacher grabbed onto his wrist and flung him down onto the ground

"You haven't been training enough!" She said in disappointment as Ed caught up to them, rubbing his cheek, where a bruise was slowly beginning to appear

"I thought you weren't feeling very well..." Al said

"What are you talking about?" Teacher yelled "Now that you're here, I'm perfectly-" she stopped, only to puke up blood

"You shouldn't over extent yourself" The man put a hand on her shoulder. The couple then got all lovey-dovey

"Aren't you the concerned one, Dear?"

"I don't know much about the philosopher's stone" Teacher, Izumi Curtis, answered Ed's question "I'm not interested in it"

"You met one alchemist in central once, who was pretty knowledgeable about the stone, right?" Her husband asked her

"Who was this person?" Ed questioned farther

"As I recall, his name is..." she tried to remember "Hohenheim" Ed's face immediately fell and filled with rage

"What's the matter?" Asuka asked

"Then he's alive?" Ed wondered aloud

"Someone you know?" Izumi asked

"He's our father" Al said

"The one you said ran out on you?" Asuka asked

"That jerk!" Ed was doing a very poor on trying to conceal his rage "It's because of him Mom's dead! It's because of him!"

"Um, did dad say anything about the stone?" Al broke the awkward and really long silence

"Something about his long held desire about to come true" Izumi recalled "He was happy when he said it" but then, she got up, and punched Ed on the head "Let's eat"

"Mama! Mama! I've been chosen! I'm an elite pilot, chosen to protect human kind! I'm the best in the world!" She opened a door "It's supposed to be a secret! But I'll tell you anyway! Just for you!" She opened a door "Everyone will be nice to us from now on! So we won't be lonely anymore!" She opened a door "So, we'll be fine, even if I don't have a Papa! We won't be lonely anymore!" She opened another door "So look! Look at me, Mama!" She grabbed onto the doorknob of her mother's bedroom and turned it "Look at me, Mama-!"

Asuka's eyes snapped open. She was lying on her bed at Izumi's house, not running around at her house in Germany. She was 14 now. Not 4. It had all been a dream, so why does she still feel like this? She already told herself to get over her mother's death. Asuka wiped the sweat from her eyebrows the stray tears that welled up in her eyes in her hours of unconsciousness. She had promised herself not to cry anymore. She had sealed away her tears along with her memories of her mother and her childhood. She was alone. It's been like that for years, but the memories still come back every night to haunt her. She tried to calm herself, but after a few minutes, her heartbeat was still racing.

"Solitude has always worked for me, so why do I feel like this?" she mumbled to herself. She got up, exited her room and made her way to Ed's room. She entered, and silently closed the door behind her. She walked over to the only bed in the room, saw the sleeping figure under the sheets, and lay down beside him.

"Huh?" He woke up to the bed shifting under the weight it carried now. Ed turned and saw Asuka's figure. "Asuka?"

"Just turn back around!" she hissed, but changed into a softer tone "Dumbass blond, just let me stay here... just for a little while..." Ed wondered what would cause Asuka to resort to this, to him, but after seeing the hurt expression that she was trying to hide, he thought against asking. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

"Wh-what are you d-doing?" She stuttered, fighting back a blush "Let me go!"

"You're hurt" he ignored her, instead, tightening his grip. "You have a really bad poker face"

"Heh, look at the one who's talking!" She shot back, but stopped struggling and went silent and breathed in his reassuring scent. "Thanks, Ed" she said after a while into the silence, when sure that he was back asleep. He wasn't that bad to be around, once you get to know him...

A/N: Sorry, this chapter was really short... shorter than all the other ones... but hey, it's sweet...


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Bye Ed, Al! But don't worry, I'll come back, because you guys will miss me!" Asuka said just as the train began to move, and carried her off, away from Dublith and back to Rush Valley because Winry called and said she needed Asuka for something important.

"Che, why would we miss you, idiot?" Ed called after her

"Well, I'll come back anyway, even if you miss me or not! Bye!~" Asuka stopped leaning out of the window of the steadily speeding up train, and sat back down, in her empty booth., with her trunk of necessities. The train ride was dull and boring, but it wasn't really long, so in an hour or so, Asuka stepped off the train and onto the ground of the train station. She quickly caught sight of Winry's blond head, and walked towards her.

"So, you told me you'd tell me what the 'something important' was when I got here" Asuka said

"Yeah. Okay, so I met someone who was willing to hire me for a automail job after I learned many of Mr Dominic's tricks, so now I work for him in a small automail shop" She led the way to the shop, making, once again, one of her boring speeches about the beauty of automail.

"So, this one's your room" Winry pointed at a door upstairs. "Now, I have a little favour to ask you..." She whispered in Asuka's ear. Asuka's grip on her trunk loosened and it slipped out of her fingers.

"What? A date?"

"A nephew of my boss is insisting that I introduce you to him. Please!"

"Sigh... It can't be helped can it? But on the day after tomorrow? That's only two days from now and a little sudden..."

"Yo, Miss Winry!" Ed greeted, two days later "We appear to find you in good spirits today!"

"Ed, Al!" She set down her box of tools "What are you up to, popping in like this?" Ed showed her his beat up sorry excuse for an automail arm

"Good grief" Winry said after giving Ed a proper discipline lesson "Even Paninya's holding down an honest job now, and look at the two of you!"

"Paninya?" Al asked

"Mm-hmm, she's given up pick pocketing, and is now making a living fixing roofs, and other work in high places. What about you guys, making any progress yet?"

"Yeah, we're taking the long way, though..." Ed said "Hey, where's Asuka?"

"She's out on a blind date" Winry answered, causing Ed's mind to race with fierce jealousy and threats. If the guy dare make a move on her, Ed was going to...

"Okay... there, the first aid is done" Winry said after she bandaged up Ed's arm

"Thanks Winry!"

"We're short on parts right now, so make do with that for the time being. I'll go get them right now, will you mind killing some time?" And she sent the brothers out.

"Yeah but..." Ed began "This place... has nothing but automail shops. I wonder where Asuka is killing her time..." But then, speak of the devil, Asuka was storming down the street, a good-looking brunette guy, a little older than Ed, chasing after her

"Asuka, come back!" He yelled "I promise not to do that again!"

"No way! You pervert! Get away from me!" Asuka wore a pretty, but plain yellow dress that fell down to her knees, but broke into a run, and disappeared through a crowd. After a few moments of silence, after witnessing the drama happening in front of him, Ed was relieved that Asuka didn't want to tolerate her date and escaped.

"Al?" Ed finally noticed the absence of his brother beside him. "Al?" He turned to find Al crouched down on the street.

"Brother..."

"What, did you find another cat, or something?"

"Mm-hmm" Al raised the so called 'cat' for Ed to see. But Ed had never seen something that looked less like a cat. It actually looked more like a human. A skinny, boney, black-haired human who looked like he hasn't had a proper meal in days

"I'm back"

"Oh, Asuka! I thought you were also going to have dinner with him" Winry said

"Yeah, but he was so boring! I left him when he tried to kiss me" Asuka was pissed. That thing had wasted her whole morning, ranting about things that Asuka hadn't bothered to remember. "Winry, don't make me do something like that again... Who's this?" She noticed the Asian looking male who was sitting down at the table, but Winry had left to get some more spare parts for her automail.

"We're back" Ed and Al's voices entered the shop.

"We meet again" The Asian said

Ed paused, then smacked his not-attached-to-his-body automail arm on the Asian's head "Don't just sit there drinking tea!"

"How cruel, and us friends!"

"Who are you calling friends? Those two gave us a real hard time!"

"Let it go. I'll give them a good talking-to later. The girl's name is Lan Fan. The old man's Fu. Those two are from a family that has served us for generations, so accept their regards"

"For someone who shakes down others for food, you must have considerable status to have two attendants"

"Well, I am the emperor's son" he said, matter of factly but then, caught sight of the Elrics laughing "Usually, you'd be surprised by that, right?"

"Oh, sorry, it was just so unexpected" Al apologized

"Imagin, the guy that was collapsed at the side of a road..." Ed added "... who has freeloaded a meal out of us, being the son of the emperor-" but he was interrupted as a kunai stuck to the table, a centimetre away from his nose.

"I won't allow you to speak ill of Master Ling" a girl said, perched out the window who Asuka assumed was Lan Fan

"Okay, sure, maybe it's not all that significant. The emperor has many sons. Xing is a nation made up of 50 different clans, with the emperor reigning over them at the top. Also, the daughter of each clan's chief is wed to the emperor, and bears his children-"

"That's so sexist!" Asuka was shocked "How could they treat the women like that? Like disposable things?"

"The emperor currently has 24 sons, and 19 daughters" Ling continued, as if deaf "I am the twelfth among them"

"43 childrem..." Ed was shocked "Is there any competition to be his successor?"

"That is indeed a problem we are faced with now. The emperor is in fairly poor health. Each clan is going all out to kiss up to him while they still can. Which is what I'm up to too. So tell me some information about the philosopher's stone!"

"No way! The philosopher's stone is not a tool for you to get ahead!" Ed started beating Ling with his even more beat up automail

"I'm back!" Winry entered the shop "There was this huge commotion on Main Street..." but she caught sight of Ed's automail "WHY IS IT BROKEN OFF?" Tools flew everywhere in Winry's wrath, and Asuka was glad electricity was somewhat connected to magnets, as she easily blocked all the tools as they bounced everywhere, trying to hit and create as much damage as they can.

"So, where are you going to break my automail _this _time?" Winry asked, when finally satisfied that Ed was beat up enough

"You just assume that I'll break it?"

"We were thinking about looking around in Central-"

"Eh? Why didn't you call me and tell me?" Asuka asked

"Because you never told us to call you and tell you!" Ed said

"I can't wait to see Central!" Ling poked his head through the window, upside down

"I told you, you're not tagging along!" Ed yelled, making his point clear

A/N: Gah! nothing's happening in these chapters! so boring, but you have to know about these details or else the other chapters won't make sense! I hate these chapters! Please review!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Asuka prowled the empty streets of Central in the night. Ed was away in Risembool, saying that he had something to do. So while her hair dried after her bath, Asuka decided to explore Central.

"Hello there," Asuka whipped her head around, and came face to face with a... _woman? _And she somehow, vaguely looked familiar... "Please don't think bad about me kid, but I just heard from Father that you're not going to be a sacrifice, and you have such talents, I can see a so much easier path if we just eliminate you..." Asuka caught sight of the Uroboros tattoo on her chest and remembered, _that was the woman at laboratory 5! _Asuka, sensing that her life was in danger, pulled out a coin from her skirt pocket, held it like she was going to flip it, took aim, and..._nothing happened?_ Asuka then felt her wet hair and remembered that she took her synchro clips off before she took her bath. Without them, she would produce just as much electricity as the pebble on the ground beside her. She was screwed... So it was either fight or flight, and taking the only sensible option, Asuka broke into a run in the opposite direction.

Lust aimed her fingernails at Asuka's back, but they missed Asuka by only a few inches, and had she not dodged at the last moment, she would have been shish kabobed. The fingernails buried themselves, instead, into a window displaying a new sword model, which Asuka recognized as a Scottish Claymore. Cracks in the window immediately appeared, making spider web designs that centred around Lust's fingernails, but the glass shattered after she raked her fingernails down, causing the sword on display, it's name tag, and info sheet, and everything else behind the used to be window to clatter onto the street. Asuka picked up the sword. Perhaps it would help her in getting away... Lust chased after her, laughing, fingernails at the ready, as Asuka ran down an alley, sword in her right hand, but soon stopped as she came to a dead end. Lust aimed, once again at Asuka, but Asuka dodged again, and tried to cut off a part of the fingernail by swinging the claymore against it. But the claymore didn't even make a scratch! Instead, Lust aimed another fingernail, and the sword clattered to the ground, Asuka's entire right arm with it. Pain shot up her shoulder as she ripped a piece off her shirt and tied it around her new stump, trying to stop the bleeding. But surprisingly, it didn't hurt. Not at all. It just felt weird.

"Your right arm was your dominate one, right?" Lust asked. Asuka's pulse suddenly seemed like it was beating in her stump, rather than her chest. Her heart was trying to pump the blood into her limb, trying close the wound. There was only one way out now... And that was past Lust. So she picked up the claymore with her weaker, but only arm left and attacked Lust. Asuka made desperate swings, but Lust kept on blocking her with her fingernails.

"Resistance is futile" Lust pointed out. "You should have realized it by now" And she disappeared, only to reappear behind Asuka, and sliced a large cut across Asuka's back, making her drop her sword in pain and kneel to the ground. "Wow, you're trying so hard... Is it a promise you made with that Fullmetal boy? Or are you telling me you have a vengeance to carry out?" Asuka didn't answer, instead, she reached for her sword, but Lust extended her fingernail and Asuka's only hand disattached from her wrist and fell onto the ground. "There, now, you can't even hold a sword..." Asuka knew this battle was lost. That this was the end, and started trembling with fear like a rabbit cornered by a wolf. _I am going to die... I am going to die..._ constantly ran threw her head, distracting her from thinking of any greater plan than to just sit there and wait to be killed. _I am going to die..._ But if her mind was clear, the only option left helpless, weaponless, handless Asuka was still to just sit there and wait to be killed. _I am going to die..._ "Because there's something you have to protect..." Lust continued "...Or because there's a reason you can't die that enables you to live on..." She aimed her fingernail at Asuka's forehead. _I am going to die..._ "...Those are all foolish fantasies of the weak."_ I AM GOING TO DIE...! _"It was rather fun, while it lasted..." But she stopped when she noticed the presence of a dark skinned man, with white hair

"Those who defy the word of God... must be punished, and the innocent must be rescued" he said

"Who the hell are you?" Lust asked

"Run!" Asuka tried to warn him "She's dangerous! Hurry up and run!" but he did the opposite. He charged into Lust, dodging the fingernails she tried to fire into him. He grabbed her arm with his right hand, and preformed his decomposing alchemy, causing it to shatter. Having experience with homunculi, he decided against battling her, grabbed Asuka and her limbs, and made a run for it while Lust was still regenerating. By a stroke of luck, the man managed to rescue her without getting a scratch. It was then and there that Asuka fainted, once again from blood loss

Asuka's eyes snapped open. She sat up, looked around and saw it was still night outside her hotel window. She wiped the cold sweat off her forehead, feeling that her arm and hand were still attached and covered with sweat. So, it was only just a nightmare? She sat there, on her soft bed and panted, trying to calm her breathing and heartbeat.

And she collapsed on her bed again, exhaustion taking her energy away, where she buried her face into her pillow and grieved for her loss. How did she allow herself to get beaten half to death?! Even if it was just a dream, how could she allow herself to be defeated and utterly mocked like that, even without her synchro clips?!

"Urgh... I must really be going soft..."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Ah! How can you do that to me?!" The small store owner pointed at his, now destroyed by a car crashing into it, stall.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" The driver chanted

"You seem to be having some trouble! State Alchemist Edward Elric is here!"

"Hey, Al, are you sure this would work?" Asuka whispered to Al a few streets away. Many things had happened since the few weeks that the Elric brothers, Asuka and Winry had come back to Central, but none of those things could compare with finding out that an Ishval serial killer, Scar, was the one who killed Winry's parents (of course, they didn't tell Winry about it), and about Hughes's death. Winry had broken into a crying fit when heard and all of them grieved for him. Now, the alchemists were on a mission to battle a man called Scar, or so the Elric brothers told Asuka, so that the homunculi could show up because Ed and Al were important 'sacrifices' and the homunculi couldn't let them die. Ed clapped his hands, and the store was fixed, brand new

"Yes. Brother and I worked out this plan to lure Scar out, since he's targeting state alchemists. So making his name known, Brother can be sure that Scar will know that a state alchemist is in town and go after him" Al whispered back

"That's amazing kid!" The market owner said

"Thank you. How much would you like me to pay for this?"

"Pay? That's not necessary! Not necessary!" Ed said

"I've broken a vase that's important to me" An elderly woman held up a broken vase "I wonder if you can fix it"

"Easily done!" Ed clapped his hands together, and fixed it. Throughout the whole morning, the three of them have gone from place to place, raking the city for things to fix. "I'm your neighbourhood state alchemist, Edward Elric!"

"This too please!"

"Can you fix this?"

"Ah~! That feels good! My feet are aching!" Asuka sighed as she sat down at a table outside of a shop "And that's all Ed's fault!" she accused

"What?! How is it my fault?!"

"If you hadn't been going up, down, and all around searching for business, we wouldn't have had to walk all the way with you, dumbass blond!"

"But you could have _not_ followed me, couldn't y-?" Ed was interrupted by a sneeze "Looks like word about me is spreading all around town"

"Sure, as flashy as you're being" Al commented, just as a car pulled up. The window rolled down, revealing Mustang

"This isn't like you, Fullmetal" he said

"Are you sure you should be out of the hospital, Colonel?" Ed asked. Mustang has been hospitalized with Havoc, after they defeated a homunculus, an artificially created human who doesn't die like regular humans do. It also turns out that the It and the woman that Ed and Asuka encountered were homunculi. The woman was actually the one that Mustang claims that he killed, proving that they can be killed.

"Maybe" Mustang answered

"I heard about Lieutenant Havoc" Ed said "Knowing Dr Marcoh-"

"Wait" Mustang interrupted him "We're drawing attention. Let's go"

"What? Marcoh's gone missing?" Ed asked when Mustang told him in an empty alley. Mustang then changed the subject to the man called Scar, how it seems like Ed is purposefully trying to lure Scar towards him. Mustang then yells at Ed, which Ed bickers back and teases him. Asuka sighed. Can't those two just shut up? They're so immature, unlike her. But then, Hawkeye cocked her gun and pointed it to the slowly approaching figure in the alleyway. The man had dark, tanned skin and wore sunglasses, as the sun was rather bright today. But his most distinguishing feature was the X shaped scar across his face, just above his nose.

"Well, he's here, isn't he?" Ed asked to no one, a triumphant smile lighting up his face. The man called Scar attacked, but the name, after being said so many times by Ed and Mustang, finally started to ring a bell in Asuka's mind, but she just couldn't place her finger on it. Where had she heard that name before? Ed and Scar immediately engaged into battle while Al brought his hands together and transmuted a wall, separating them from the fight.

"Colonel Mustang, we need your help to keep the military out of this so that they don't shoot Scar. If Scar dies, the homunculi wouldn't show up and all this would have been to waste" Al said, marking the time for Mustang and Hawkeye to leave.

Al and Asuka then joined the battle. All she needed to do was slow Scar down so he wouldn't beat up Ed too hard. Asuka shut away her thoughts and let her reflexes take over. _Dodge, punch, drop-to-the-ground-and-roll. _She didn't have to think. Her mind was on autopilot. EVA training does come in handy in more than one way. But then, she remembered...

"Hey, Scar, are you the ones who killed Winry's parents?" She reminded Ed what he was going to ask Scar. Ed caught the drift and continued

"Do you remember Amestrisian doctors named Rockbell?" He asked "Even after the order to exterminate Ishval came out, they continued to help the Ishvalans. Do you remember the doctor couple who saved you, and that you killed?!"

"Brother!" Al stopped him.

It was then, that Ed and Asuka noticed who was standing one of the many holes in the used to be fine wall. Shock masked her features. Then followed pain as Winry asked "What are you talking about?"

"Winry..." Ed began

"This is the man who killed mom and dad?" She managed to choke out through her agony "You're kidding... they were killed... by someone they helped?" She fell to the ground, her limbs filled with her grief "Why...? What did my mom and dad ever do? They never did anything that they deserved to be killed for, right?" She gripped her aching head "Give them back...! Give back my mom and dad!" She seized a nearby gun that a fallen soldier dropped and pointed it at Scar. "GIVE THEM BACK!"

Scar remained clam, not afraid. If she shot, he knew that he was skilled enough to dodge the bullet and kill her. "You are the doctor's daughter? You have a right to shoot me. Shoot me"

"Don't shoot, Winry! Put the gun down!" Ed interrupted

"You should know that you won't shoot" Asuka stated "You are not a daughter of vengeance. You are not tough enough to press the trigger, and you will never be. But even if you do shoot, you probably would either miss, or Scar will dodge the bullet because he certainly has the skill to. And after he's dodged, he's not just gonna stand there and watch you reload and aim and attempt to shoot him again. He's gonna eliminate any adversary that stands in his way. So go ahead! Go throw away your life in your stupid, blind rage!" Tears ran down Winry's face. Scar took the opportunity of confusion in the air to attack Ed, but he dodged and Scar then settled for attacking Winry instead. But in that short moment, Ed managed to get between Scar and Winry, using himself as a human shield to protect her. Al then attacked Scar with a kick, causing him to leap away and escape through a fresh hole that he created.

"Brother, you dummy! What are you doing?!" Al asked "Are you trying to get both of you killed?! Hurry up and take Winry someplace safe!" Al then disappeared, chasing after Scar

Winry continued to cry and Asuka snapped. She just couldn't tolerate that annoying crying anymore! So she followed her instincts. Asuka slapped Winry across the face, which immediately had the effect Asuka wanted. Winry stopped crying, lifted her tear soaked, half assed face to look at Asuka in, perhaps, amazement?

"How long are you going to stay like that? Do you want your parents' deaths to be in vain?! What would they say if they saw their own daughter about to kill someone they helped?! Being unable to stop yourself from picking up that gun and attempting to shoot someone, and in the end, even using Ed's life as a shield, you are alive now. Don't forget what your parents died for! They died to heal and cure the sick! Or do you want to kill your mom, dad, and the other doctors again right here?! Don't think, not even for a second, that you're the only one who suffers or that you are the one who suffers the worst pain. You think you have it bad?! There are people out there who've had it way worse!" She raised her hand again, preparing to slap this stupid infant again, but a metal hand clamped onto her wrist.

"Asuka" his voice was laced with concealed rage. His metal hand shook but he asked quietly "Can you go away? For now?"

Asuka couldn't believe it. He was taking the crying infant's side? She broke into a sprint and ran as fast as she can back to the hotel while Ed tried to calm Winry down after she started a new crying fit. How does she still cry like that?! Winry's what? Fifteen years old? She's older than Asuka by more than one year and she still bawls like a baby?! Why, Asuka stopped crying ever since she was four! She went through a living hell during her childhood! Did Winry see her parents' death for herself?! Did she walk in on her parents committing suicide when she was four years old?! Right now, after Winry cried everyone a river, she can either build a bridge and get over it like how Asuka built one and got over her mothers death, or she can just jump in and die! And Winry's not alone like Asuka is. Winry has her granny, Al and Ed... How dare he?! How dare he take that crybaby's side?! How could he not understand what Asuka wanted to get through Winry's thick skull when she slapped her? How does he even put up with her damn crying?! But even under all of Asuka's rage and anger, she still couldn't help but feel jealous once again, but this time of Winry for having such good friends that would do so much for her. They would defend her when she was being offended. They would pick her up when she fell down. They would comfort her when she was sad and needing a hug. They would do the things for Winry that Asuka wanted her friends to do for her, if she ever made any.

The door of the hotel room opened, hours after night has fallen, revealing Ed and Al in the doorway. Asuka sat on the couch, not turning to look at them or to greet them.

"I'm not going to say sorry for what I did back there" She said instead

"I'm not asking you to" Ed said "But what I want you to realize is that Winry isn't as tough as you might think. She is very fragile inside because she lost her parents at a very young age and has suffered pain that many people has not."

"Are you trying to suggest that I don't know what Winry's going through?" Asuka asked quietly. "Believe me. I have gone through way worse than she will ever go through" But she suddenly stopped, jumped up from the couch, and started yelling at Ed "Why am I telling you this?!" But she calmed down again. "Okay, okay, I'll go talk to her"

Asuka walked out the room, went to the door beside hers and knocked. "Hey, Winry, can I come in?"

No answer

So Asuka tried the door knob and found it unlocked and walked inside. Sitting on the couch was Winry, with Ed's red coat draped around her shoulders.

"Hello" Winry said, not turning to face Asuka. Asuka made her way to the back of the couch, leaning on it, facing away from Winry

"Winry, what I wanted you to understand was that your life story is not all that rare. There might be always new situations, but the main plot is basically the same as many others'. Let me tell you another story that's truly rare and painful though: Once upon a time, there was a little girl who had a mother. She loved her mother very much, but one day, it turned into a nightmare. It turned into a living hell where the little girl couldn't love her mother anymore without paying for it by being constantly crushed under grief and anguish and the weight of the love. But she chose to love her mother anyway, even though she had to pay. She wanted to cure her mother's sickness, but the line between truth and myth is sometimes difficult to see. As much as she wanted it to be true, to believe that she could make her mother right again, it was nothing but a myth. But yet, she participated in this myth, she created it, perpetuated it, but in the end, another dreadful day came, and she found herself paying dearly for loving her mother. The grief and weight of the love no longer crushed her. In the end, it buried her. See, Winry? You have people who share roughly the same pain as you. You have comrades here. We will support you in whatever you can't do alone, even if it takes force. So don't strain yourself too much... Winry"

Moments of silence followed after Asuka finished but Winry was deeply drawn into the story, even though it was extremely vague and unclear and she doesn't understand it and she accepts what she thought was Asuka's way of apologizing anyway.

"Asuka" Winry broke the silence "Do you want to try some of the apple pie that I baked? Gracia taught me how to" And Asuka found herself sitting on the couch, apple pie slice in hand, as Winry chatted merrily with her once again. Though Asuka would never admit it, she wanted to be somewhat like Winry. She wanted to cry big. She wanted to cry so long and hard that when she stopped, she would have long forgotten what she was crying over. But Asuka wasn't Winry. Asuka was Asuka Langley Sohryu. She has decided to grow up and not cry anymore long ago, and even if she did let herself cry, she would _never_ be able to forget that fateful day, when she opened the door to her mother's bedroom and saw through her four year old eyes exactly what was hanging from the ceiling, no matter how much she wanted to. She would never forget the grief and weight of the love she had to carry.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Thanks for stopping me back then" Winry said to the Elrics and Asuka, already on the train and leaning out the window. Early in the morning, she got a call from work and was informed that everyone missed her dearly. "I have people waiting for me. I was _this _close to not being able to face them again. Thanks for pulling me back" She turned to Asuka "I know I'll never be able to be as tough as you and repay you in the same way, but I'll do my best" she ran her fingers through her ponytail, but several strands came out. "Sigh... my hair does this whenever I get depressed..." She then pulled Asuka into an tight but awkward hug. "thanks" she turned to Ed "Ed. But don't forget to take care of your automail!"

"Ok"

"I'll send you some good polishing oil soon, Al"

"Mm-hmm"

Winry's face then fell and she grabbed Ed's hand "Don't go dying, ok?"

"Alright. We all care about you, so don't go stressing yourself too much, Winry" he said

"Bye!" Winry called as the train began to move

"Bye-bye" Everyone chorused and started to make their way out of the train station. But even after the train started moving, even after he was long out of her view, her heart still couldn't stop beating abnormally quick and she still couldn't help but think and think of him. Whenever she'd be upset, he's comfort her. Whenever she was in danger, he would go to any lengths to save her. Now, whenever she would think about him, it made her feel strange. Good strange. Not creepy strange. He had always been her best friend, so why does she suddenly feel like her stomach is floating in outer space?

_That's it..._ she finally understood the bubbly feeling she would get whenever she was around him..._I've been falling for him..._

"State Military Colonel Roy Mustang" Mustang raised his hand out to Ling, introducing himself. Asuka had never liked Mustang. She's heard from Ed that Mustang is nothing but a pretty boy that cheats on his girlfriends. Heck, he probably thinks of women as just sex toys and things to clean up after him, stupid sexist asshole... Anyway, they were currently in a crappy, beat up hideout house that Mustang managed to find to hide the captured homunculus. They had all agreed to gather there and the Elric brothers, Asuka, and another doctor had to car pool with Mustang. The moonlight shown through the cracked windows, dead bugs littering the window sills

"Ling Yao. Twelfth son of the Emperor of Xing" Ling introduced himself too "I'm grateful to you for providing a doctor"

"Not at all. Thank you for helping out with the Maria Ross incident" _What? _Asuka thought, getting pissed off. _What happened to Lieutenant Ross? Why doesn't anyone ever tell me anything?_ "As well as this one" Mustang continued, pointing to the tied up homunculus that they managed to capture through yesterday's plan.

Ed and Al came to join them.

"Hey, what is that?" The doctor asked as he arrived too.

"A homunculus named Gluttony" Mustang answered. "Apparently, these guys have connections to a portion of the military's senior staff"

"Just a portion?" Ling asked in surprise, causing everyone to pay him their fullest attention "Far from it! There's a possibility that King Bradley is a homunculus too" he continued. Asuka felt disgusted. Sure she never really talked to Bradley, but there's no way he could be with people like the homunculi. He seems easygoing, like someone you could trust... "There was an Uroboros tattoo on the eye under the patch. He came after us, along with Gluttony"

"It can't be!" Ed rejected. How? This is impossible! It's like Ling is saying an ant bigger than an elephant. How could the most powerful person in the military be a bad guy? He was supposed to protect the people of the country. Besides, he had a wife and kid. Homunculi can't have kids, right? "The head of our country is a homunculus?"

"Then again..." Ling continued "Bradley doesn't have the same inhuman presence as Gluttony. His presence is the same as the regular person"

"But then... for one thing, if the Fuhrer is a homunculus, how is it that he has a son?" Al asked. "It said in that book that homunculi had no reproductive abilities -"

"No. His son, Selim is adopted." Dr Knox interrupted "He is not of the Fuhrer's blood offspring."

"Whether monster or human, either way," Mustang said with a mischievous look on his face "This makes it easier for me to drag the Fuhrer out of his seat. First we get some information out of this one" he referred to Gluttony "I'll take his philosopher's stone too. It may be useful for treating my man."

"Hey!" Ling interrupted, "Lan Fan lost her arm to capture him. He's a lead to gaining immortality! We're going to take him back with us to Xing!"

"Just a moment! We've been looking for a way to get our original bodies back for years now" Ed yelled

"Hey! I need to get back to 2015 so that I could pilot EVA and torment Stupid Shinji!" Asuka argued "There's no way I'm letting you take him to Xing"

"That's right, Ling! You're an illegal alien" Mustang added

"Do you actually think you can move around the country with Gluttony without some help from us?" Ed questioned

"Mr Mustang, I'm going home" Dr Knox said in the middle of all the chaos, nobody listening and busy fighting "I can't keep up with this anymore"

"...Mustang..." Gluttony suddenly spoke "...Mustang... killed Lust" he flew into a rage. Lust was the reason that Gluttony could have actually lived through his immortal life. When he was born, he had nothing. Nothing to do, nothing to live for. But Lust had given him all of that. It was because of her, Gluttony had a reason to live. And here he was, the man who took all of that away from him standing right there. He bulged against his bindings, furiously trying to break them and avenge Lust, capturing the attention of all the people there. "Roy Mustang!" Gluttony stood up facing Mustang, and his stomach split open to revile a hideous eye rimmed with sharp teeth that slithered around like worms. Then, winds hit Asuka with the force of a tornado, sucking her into, literally, the belly of the beast. Darkness swirled around Asuka as she fell... and fell... and fell into the seemly bottomless pit.

Asuka woke up minutes, or hours, or minutes later in some sort of water. Urgh... How much time has passed? Where is this place? It smells like crap... Urgh... She feels like crap... She opened her eyes and looked around but found that she could see no more than a few metres away in the dim light. Seriously, where is this place? Why does it seem that she is standing in an ocean of blood? Well, it would explain the smell...

"Hello?" She called out. She hated being alone. Especially in some blood bath. "Anyone there?" She stumbled around, her shoes soaked through to her feet. She made her way around. Every few metres, she would encounter some building ruins, but never another living human. "Hello?" she waddled around. "Anyone?" She made her way through the never ending land scene and after around half an hour, she couldn't help but think she was traveling in circles, chasing the rainbow. "Hey! Dumbass blond?" Was she going to be stuck here forever? What if she was? Will she either starve to death? "Damn it! What am I thinking?!" she yelled to no one "I'm gonna break my way out!" she fished a coin out of her pocket, aimed at the ever silent darkness and fired, the railgun sailing into the black and lighting it with it's usual brilliant golden colour, different from her normal blue/purple electricity, but it soon disappeared after 50 metres, the coin burning itself out by contact with the atmosphere.

"Asuka?" a muffled voice called out. Damn, she must be going crazy. Now she's hearing voices? No! She won't allow it! She won't allow herself to go crazy! She won't allow herself to turn into her mother! But the truth was... she didn't know if she could stop it. She has been in this hell hole for around an hour, with no other living soul there to even walk with her, the darkness around her constantly eating at her consciousness. Truth was... she was scared of repeating history.

But the voice just got louder "Asuka?"

"Shut up!" She screamed as she grabbed her head and collapsed right into the ocean of blood. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Asuka, what's wrong with you" Ed's voice asked, right beside her now. She lifted her face out of her hands and looked at him, his golden eyes filled with worry.

Her pride returned, fully renewed after meeting another human being. She jumped out of the water, blush rising to her cheeks and yelled at him "...I don't need your concern! I'm not a little kid anymore!..." Does he think she was weak? Does he think that she needs help? Asuka doesn't need any of it!

"Now, you're back to normal... though I can't say if that's a good thing or not. And I know you're not Envy in disguise. Homunculi can't use alchemy" Ed commented as he transmuted some ear plugs out of some wood floating by in case she goes on another one of her rants. "Now, help me find Al"

"Huh? You lost your own brother?" she sneered

"Shut up!" and he continued to call out "Al? Hey, is anyone there?" they sloshed around the shallow ocean of blood "Al! Answer me! Damn it... Ling, you dumb prince-!"

"Dumb? What do you mean dumb?" another familiar voice answered and the prince made his way into sight, carrying a bone on fire.

"Ling?"

"What a thing to call a prince of a nation..."

"You're all right?" Ed's face then fell "You're not Envy turned into him, are you?" his eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"If you want, I can recite the entire hotel room service menu!"

"Alright. It's really you"

"What about you two... You're not fakes, are you, you bean-"

"Who are you calling a bean sized runt?!" Ed spazzed, jumping at Ling and attacking him.

"What about you, you little kid?"

"What was that? Care to repeat that?" Asuka challenged, giving him one of her death glares, electrical discharge flying everywhere.

"Alright, it's really you"

"There's no way out of this..." Asuka groaned, dragging her feet through the ocean in exhaustion, having run a marathon with Ed and Ling trying to find a way out of what they assumed was Gluttony's belly. But Ling suddenly tensed up.

"What is it?" Asuka asked.

"Something's coming" Ling alerted everyone of the new threat slowly walking towards them

"Hey, it's you guys, isn't it?" Asuka remembered that certain person... The It from laboratory 5.

"It's him, Envy, alright" Ling confirmed.

"Tell me the way out of here!" Ed demanded

"Unfortunately, there is no way out" the person named Envy said "You've really gone and done it now. You've even got me, Envy dragged into this as well. Gluttony is a failed attempt by our Father to create a Doorway of Truth... but Father couldn't create one. Not even with his power. This is the defective Doorway of Truth. I guess you can call this the area between reality and truth. There are no exits, or any ways out. All we can do is use up our strength and wait for our lives to end. Guys, all we can do is wait here to die."

"So all we can do is die..." Ling echoed

"What?!" Asuka challenged, not accepting the truth. "What the hell are you doing?! If you just die like this, what should the people you leave behind do?"

"Damn it! Creating doorways and things, just who is this Father? Is it the Fuhrer?" Ed asked

"Bradley? No, he's just a homunculus."

"If Bradley is one, then are you guys behind the Ishval civil war?"

"Ishval?" Envy's face lightened and he laughed a crazy laugh that chilled Asuka to the bone "I've never had a job more delightful than that one! Do you know what the trigger was that started the uprising? I, Envy, am the very person who shot that child! That felt so good. The civil war flared up right before my eyes, all over one bullet." Ed clenched his hands into fists. It was because of this creature! Because of him, millions of lives were lost, leaving behind loved ones. Because of him, Winry has no one but her Granny and has been clawing her way to still live as a normal human. "Man, that was a real thrill. Ah, and incidentally, the officer that I turned myself into was a moderate who opposed the military's intervention with Ishval. And that guy, he couldn't even account for himself and was court-martialed!" Envy expressed his amusement, not afraid of the pipsqueak that made his way towards him. "You humans are really easy to manipulate-"

"Damn you!" Ed drove his automail fist into Envy's face, but he didn't even flinch?!

Instead, red transmutation lights flashed everywhere and he said calmly "You want to fight, you punks?" Envy stood up "We're all going to die here anyway." his voice then tripled, as if there were three Envys speaking at once, in perfect synchronization. "Let me show you something neat before you pass on" and he transformed into a huge green dog monster. His eight legs supported his body, his head and shoulders were couvered with faces the same colour as his skin that looked like they were in pain and endlessly tortured and his 2 story long tail whipped around in anger. Envy thrashed around, smashing everything within his reach, sending Ed, Ling and Asuka to take precautions and take refuge on top of building pieces. Envy then smashed the piece that Asuka perched on, forcing her to jump off, but while in midair, Envy snatched around her heel and flung her into a building with so much force that it created a crater in the stone. Snap...snap... Asuka could feel at least two of her ribs breading upon impact. Heh, compared with EVA training, this pain was nothing undurable. She slowly got to her feet, though, careful not to shift her broken ribs.

Envy grabbed Ling next and smashed him into another wall and lashed Ed with his tail, sending Ed to fly across the ocean.

"Ed!" Ling and Asuka ran to him, flanking him and facing Envy.

"Can you make a weapon?" Ling asked

"Sure" Ed brought his hands together and touched the ocean. "In this sea of blood, there's no shortage of iron" a sword appeared out of it and Ling caught it. Ed then transmuted his own arm into a sword

"Can we take him?" Ed asked

"I'm not sure, I mean, with the way he's built" Ling answered "What's worse, he broke two or three ribs with the last attack"

"I'm in a pretty similar shape" Ed said

"Heh, compared with EVA training, this is nothing" Asuka broke the tension "and yes. We can take him"

"What if we can't" Ed smiled and teased her

"If we don't, what the hell will the people we leave behind do?" she said confidently, even smiling "but don't worry. We will survive, because if we don't, I'll kill you both"

A/N: finally! i'm back from the three weeks of what my family calls a vacation. this chapter is so boring. but you have to know what happens.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Envy, the 30 ton hairless dog thing, leapt into the air and jumped at them, landing and creating a splash so big it could be a tsunami, sweeping the much smaller humans away. While they were all staggering back, trying to regain their footing, Envy swept his tail around and lashed out at Ed, sending him sailing across the ocean. While Ling swung his sword at the creature, Asuka was left thinking of strategies. She could just electrify the whole ocean... Though she never tried it, blood is made of a high concentration of salt and water and any salt and water solution is a very good conductor of electricity, so it is very likely that blood is a good electrical conductor. But then, she would electrify Ling and Ed too... there is no sand around here either... so she'll try the only other thing available. She fished a coin out of her pocket, took aim and conducted all her electric waves to that single point. The coin flew at Envy's eye in it's unique golden arc, lighting up the whole scene. Envy screamed in pain, gripping his right eye in pain as blood flowed freely to join the ocean. Red transmutation lights flew around Envy's eye, already repairing the damage.

"Damn you!" the creature yelled after swatting Ling out of the way. He grabbed Asuka in the other hand like an annoying bug and sunk his claws into Asuka's soft stomach. Hot white pain sprouted from her side as she screamed.

"Go to hell!" she released a large burst of electricity, concentrating at Envy's arm, shocking it off and freeing her. Her stomach injuries weren't deep. Nothing serious, but that didn't stop it from hurting like hell. She should be used to this by now! To the pain that she was constantly put through when she messed up in training. That's why she wanted to be perfect. If she was perfect, it wouldn't hurt anymore. If she was perfect, her mother might still be alive... Was it her fault that her mother wasn't there anymore? Was she such a bad daughter that her mother... hated her? Would her mother have... Could her mother have recovered...? If she was a good girl, would there have been a better way? If she didn't mess up, would it still hurt?

"Ed!" she vaguely heard someone scream, reaching her all the way into the abyssal depths of her mind "Ed!" she snapped out of her trance. What was she thinking? She was in the middle of a battle, for crying out loud! But when she came back from her thoughts, she was faced with quite a sight. Ed... what was Envy doing? Envy... was eating Ed? Envy swallowed Ed in one bite... A chill ran down Asuka's spine. Ed was gone...? What chance do they stand against a monster like that? She trembled, and not because she was cold.

"Gah!" Asuka's thoughts were interrupted when one of Envy's front teeth popped out of his mouth and a foot was sticking out of the space the tooth should have been. "Let me out, Envy! It stinks in here!" Ed? Ed was back? Ed didn't leave them? "We might be able to get out of here! Work with me, Envy!"

"Ow" Ed yelped as Ling tightened the bandages made of cloth on Ed's broken left arm.

"Sorry, just some first aid" Ling said

"Thanks" Ed gingerly rubbed his arm

"I've collected everything there was in this area" Envy reported, returning with some building remains and stones with some weird symbols on them. Even homunculi would stoop this low, to even work with so called 'puny humans' to stay alive?

"Is this all from Xerxes?" Ling asked

"Yeah" Ed confirmed "It's part of the mural from the temple that was in the ruins. You can't transmute something that doesn't exist in this world. I made sure of that... So, I got this sudden inspiration on how to get out of here. What if I was to retransmute myself, a living person?" His eyes were filled with determination as he drew a transmutation circle like the one in laboratory 5 out of blood onto a dry piece of flat stone. "That's human transmutation too. I'm sure it will reopen the doorway. If Gluttony is a false doorway of truth, then if we pass through the right doorway, I'll bet we'll come out in the right space. I'll open the doorway, and you three jump through it"

"What if you fail?" Asuka did a poor job of hiding the concern in her voice "And you die?"

"Then I won't fail" he replied confidently, even smiling "Didn't you say earlier, if we die, what the hell would the people we leave behind do?" he went to the centre of the circle, brought his hands together, and put them onto the ground, summoning an enormous grey eye with small black hands reaching out. Blue transmutation lights flashed, dimming any other light in comparison. "Ling, Asuka, jump in!" The moment they stepped into the circle, they were blown away. Their bodies crumbled, like a child's building blocks and they disappeared, as if swept from the face of existence. The last thing Asuka saw was Ed's golden gaze on her, staring at her as if he regretted this, before her consciousness was taken from her.

Asuka awoke traveling. Not by car nor train nor plane. Just floating along in midair in a white air with long strips of video clip things floating by. She couldn't stop. She couldn't speed up. She couldn't slow down. She was being brought along, as if washed along by the ocean currents. Ling and Envy were gone, missing. But someone was singing... a female voice... though there was no one is sight... both vaguely familiar voice and tune...*

_A small... flickering light... in a fountain... surrounded by deep forest  
Waiting on the other side... of the door... that warm smile.  
Recalling... a far and distant day..._

_Someday crumbling down... and disappearing..._

Asuka now noticed that the video clips were clips from her life... her, Ed and Ling vs Envy... her being sucked into Gluttony's stomach... her slapping Winry... her battle against Lust... her meeting Ling...

_Tomorrow..._

_Even if tomorrow... is a day with love..._

_Can one really... believe that?_

_Now... only now, I just wanted.. to watch the lights..._

_Of that never-returning moment_

... Her and Ed hugging... her and Ed praying... her and Ed eating Ms Gracia's apple pie... her and Ed at the hospital... her and Ed at laboratory 5... her and Ed at Winry's house... her and Ed beating up Tucker... her and Ed at the train station, seeing eachother for the first time... her and Ed...

_The Friend... with whom I exchanged vows_

_The vivid image... of her... earnest gaze_

_If we could meet again..._

_One more time..._

...Her plug suit... Unit 02... her synchro clips... the monkey doll... her mother's doll... her mother's body hanging by the ceiling...

_The blue sky is terribly sad_

_A fleeting... desperate plea..._

_Is twisted..._

_Only spilling hot droplets_

...Her childhood... her and her mother hugging... her and her mother eating... her playing with her mother in the grassy field...

_Tomorrow..._

_Even if tomorrow... is a day with dreams..._

_Can one really... believe that?_

_Now... only now... unfulfilled promises..._

_Of that never-returning moment_

...her crying in her mother's lap... her mother teaching her how to sing... her mother singing her to sleep... her mother...

_Tomorrow..._

_Even if tomorrow... is a day with love..._

_I would still stand and face today_

Asuka's eyes snapped open. She finally understood now... who this voice... she could see a light at an end of this tunnel, signaling the tunnel's end...

_And from now too thinking of that moment..._

_I will continue to fight thinking of that moment..._

_I will continue to fight_

She managed to get one word out before she exited the tunnel of her past, the things that made her who she was... one word summed it all up.

"...Momma..."

* the song is actually the Claymore Character song for Miria. It's really pretty and we authors can never fully express the beauty of music in literature. So here's the link if you wanna actually listen to it on youtube:

watch?v=CRUmBFQZo5A


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

White and red lights danced everywhere, filling Asuka's field of vision as she woke up, having lost consciousness again. She could feel Envy's many faces on his shoulders... disgusting... the fireworks stopped flashing, and she could see again, but she wasn't in the tunnel of her memories anymore. Instead, she was in a white room with large tubes, thick as grown up trees, flowing everywhere. She looked around some more and discovered Ed and Ling both at her right side, Envy's many faces entangled around them too.

"Brother? Brother!" she heard Al's voice call out and saw him rush to his brother. "Brother!"

Ed's eyes slid open "Al? Al in armour? Which means..." His face lightened up "We made it back, huh?" He separated himself from Envy's faces and stood up, brushing himself off. "I have to wonder though, where are we?"

"This is a surprise" an unfamiliar male voice commented "People coming out of his belly" Ed whipped around

"Hohenheim...?" Ed muttered. Hey, Asuka thought, wasn't Hohenheim Ed and Al's dad? So why would he be here?

"A steel arm and leg... Armour..." Hohenheim continued, as if no one spoke, but suddenly went up close to Ed, as if inspecting him "Are you the Elric Brothers?"

"You're not him?" Ed asked

"Have you mistaken me as someone else? Do you mean Van Hohenheim? What's your connection to him?"

"He's our dad" Al answered

"Father?" the man asked, then suddenly grabbed hold of Ed's head, as if he was a new species that he just discovered by accident "That is a surprise! He went and had children?!" he started laughing and petting Ed on the head like he was some dog that just performed a trick "But as I understood it, your last name is Elric"

Ed pushed the man's hand off his head. "Elric was our mother's name!"

"I see, so where is he now?"

"I don't know!" Ed lost his patience "Never mind him, who are you?" he pointed his metal finger at the man's face "You look exactly like Hohenheim, you know!"

"He wouldn't be dead" the man continued, ignoring Ed, deeply engrossed in his thoughts. "Oh, are you injured?" he rediscovered Ed again, looking at Ed's broken arm "and you don't have your left hand" he turned to Al, put his hand on Al's wrist. Red transmutation lights flashed, and Al had his hand back. He then grabbed Ed's left arm "It's broken" he said casually, as if commenting on the weather. Red lights again. Ed tore off his bandages and flexed his hand.

"It's better..." Ed said, amazed. The man then put his hand on Ed's side "Ow, ow, ow"

"And some broken ribs..." He commented. Red lights. Ed patted his sides. Not a shred of pain remained "You are both precious resources to me"

"This is impossible!" Asuka interrupted. Even with what little she knew about alchemy outside of her field, she wasn't stupid enough not to know about the law of equivalent exchange. This man had done the impossible. He did something equivalent of dividing with zeros.

Ling pointing his sword at the man, bracing himself "What have you got going on inside you?" he demanded

The man's stare hardened to ice when he looked at Ling and Asuka "I'll ask you the same thing. Who are you?" he then turned to Gluttony "You can eat them"

"Alright" Gluttony happily said

"J-just a moment" Ed quickly made his way to his acquaintances and spread his arms out, using himself as a shield again. Al followed his brother "They're friends of ours! Out of consideration for us being your sacrifices, can't you, you know..."

"That's none of my affair. They're not ones that I need" he walked away

"Brother" Al whispered so that everyone but the homunculi and the man can hear "The homunculi called him father. He's the one who created them"

"What?"

"He did fix our bodies though"

"I don't like him" Ling stumbled to join the brothers. "Or his attitude..." He pointed his sword at Father's back. He spoke, hatred clearly made it's way into his voice, but Asuka couldn't help but notice that his sword was shaking. "He's just like those who laugh at humans for being fools"

"That's not true." Father turned to face the humans "Do you think of bugs crawling along the ground as fools? When you see a worm struggling, you feel no association with it, because your levels are so vastly different, right? That's how I feel about you humans"

Ed brought his hands together and pressed them against the ground. Large spikes sprouted from it, aiming themselves at Father. But Father blocked the spikes with his own shield made of the ground, transmuting without a transmutation circle or any movement whatsoever which should have been impossible.

"You may have healed my injuries," Ed started yelling, deeply disturbed and disgusted. Arguing while gesturing with his hands "but we still have irreconcilable differences! You seem to be the root of all this evil! I'm going to settle this right now! I don't give a damn about the small fry!" he suggested the homunculi

"You're a fine one to talk about small fry, pipsqueak!" Envy called

"Pipsqueak?!" Ed snapped, brought his hands together and pressed them to one of the tubes. Then rushed towards Father, wrapped themselves around him, acting like ropes and restraints. But they all shattered and blew away when the red light flashed everywhere. Envy then leapt at Ed, attempting to squash him under one of his huge feet. Ed leapt away and jumped towards Father, but a large block of stone transmuted itself out of nowhere, blocking Ed from getting to Father. Al then transmuted a tube out of the stone, determined to help his brother, but it dissolved into thin air before it even made contact with Father. Ling jumped at the man, but received a hard blow to the stomach by another block before he managed to gorge his sword into Father's eye. A brilliant arc of golden light lit up the whole room, marking the coin's travels as it sped towards Father. But it wasted away after only 10 metres, right before it made contact with Asuka's target, making the golden light disappear. Asuka's eyes widened. That should have been impossible! Her railgun has a range of 50 metres before the coin burned itself away. The railgun was her pride in this world... her lethal move... her trump card. But it was useless against this monster disguised as a human. What chance... what chance did they have against something like that?

The man sighed "This is a waste of time" he then stepped forward. As soon as his foot touched the ground, red lights flashed everywhere, blinding Asuka for that moment.

"What the hell did you just do?" Ed challenged. He brought his hands together and pressed them to the ground, but nothing happened? He tried again. Nothing. Al tried. Nothing. "My alchemy isn't working" Ed said in horror.

"Envy, you can have them. But try not to hurt my sacrifices too much"

"Aww, Father" Gluttony complained "What about me?"

"Heh, heh" Envy laughed and turned to Asuka and Ling "Well, I guess it's time I give you a taste of... true despair" Asuka's eyes widened as her intuition told her to run.

"All of you, run!" She managed to get out before Envy then disappeared. Amazing... how such a huge mass could vanish in small time. He then reappeared behind Ed and ran his sharp claws down Ed's back, making a deep enough cut to immobilize Ed for the moment. Ed crumbled onto the floor, blood staining his shirt. Envy then reappeared in front of Al, struck his hand into Al's stomach and separated his torso from his legs, causing Al to crash to the ground.

"If I hurt you guys, Father would just heal you after. So now, I immobilize you guys" He then flashed towards Ling, slashed his claws across Ling's right shoulder, creating a deep gash, and the only comrade that Asuka had left fell. Envy then turned his ugly head to look at Asuka

"So... How does it taste?"

Asuka's eyes widened. Without EVA, she was really was nothing... Without even her alchemy, she couldn't do anything. "Ling... Al... Ed..."

"Too bad, isn't it?" Envy continued "I think you would have made a fine warrior. You're smart, with good instincts. For warriors, it's not just about strength. They won't live very long if they're not smart. And yet, if they're too smart, they won't live long either..." he disappeared once again, and after seeing this technique multiple times, Asuka trusted her agility and intuition and managed to dodge, but just barely. She made her way towards Ling's dropped sword and picked it up. Envy then attacked Asuka again, but she dodged the punch and Envy's fist ended up denting the floor. Asuka jumped onto Envy's arm and stabbed him, burying the sword deep into his arm before slashing towards the side, causing Envy's arm to drop to the ground. Envy howled in pain as red lights danced around his stump, reconstructing his arm. First bone, then muscle and veins, then skin. Envy kept on attacking, Asuka kept on dodging and counter striking. Meanwhile, Ed came back to consciousness.

"Damn" he said. "She's amazing. To think that she could move like that and dodge. If she could do that, why didn't she do it before we lost our alchemy? Then we wouldn't be..."

"It's probably a last resort. She must not have much stamina." Ling answered, as he and Ed weren't that far apart from where they fell.

"Huh? How'd you know?" Ed asked

"Just a guess..."

"Hmmm, you might not be such bad material..." the man called father said, looking at Ling "I might be able to increase the number of pawns I could use" he pointed to his forehead, where a third eye opened up and cried out red tears into his hand, where it solidified and became a stone. He then dropped the stone into a cut on Ling's cheek. The stone became liquid again and crept into the wound. Red lights flashed everywhere and Ling started twitching from pain.

"Ling!" Ed yelled

"No, it's alright" Ling managed to get out "This is what I want. A philosopher's stone."

But they were interrupted by a load crash. They whipped their heads around and saw Asuka struggling underneath Envy's hand, both arms trapped so she could do nothing but squirm.

"Got you now" Envy sneered. "You really gave it all you had, but I knew it wouldn't last. I only had to wait for you to reach your limits." He then appeared to be deep in thought while Asuka struggled, but was no match to him in sheer muscle power. He finally wondered out loud "Now then, how should I torture you to death?" before he transformed another one of his hands into a large scythe, but just the blade, and buried it deep into Asuka's lower stomach.

Asuka felt nothing. Nothing but pain, pain and pain. This was nothing like last time. Last time, it was only Envy's claws and nothing deep. This pain doesn't even compare to last time's pain. This pain doesn't even compare to EVA training. When Asuka opened her mouth to gasp, a scream ripped itself from her throat instead.

"No!" Ed yelled, pushing himself off the floor but his back injury opened again, causing him to drop to the ground again. "Damn it" Why couldn't he do anything? Why couldn't he get up and help Asuka? Asuka was in pain right now! She was getting tortured until her heart stops beating! So why couldn't he help and protect her? He started shuddering, true despair weighing down his shoulders "Damn it, I can't move... It's hopeless... this is the end... there's nothing I can do..." warm tears subconsciously leaked from his eyes. What would he do...? What the hell would he do if Asuka died? If Envy killed Asuka, Ed didn't know what he could do.

She screamed and screamed, only stopping to cough up blood and draw breath when Envy twisted the blade and buried it even deeper until the blade pushed itself against the floor. Her limbs tensely spazzed from the pain. She didn't know how much she could take until God becomes satisfied and lets her slip into unconsciousness to escape the pain. Her head shook from side to side, her pupils shrinking, unable to withstand it and slipping into half consciousness... almost... almost there... almost to unconsciousness to escape. Almost to ecstasy and paradise. Asuka felt herself slipping away. Her eyes glazed over, no longer shining. Asuka looked over to Ed. He was... crying? Tears were dripping from his beautiful golden eyes... Wait... Beautiful? Where did that come from? Oh well... she was going away and leaving this pain behind. So why was he crying? He should be happy like she is, because she's about to escape. Asuka only stayed conscious for long enough to see the doors of the room slammed open to revile a familiar Asian girl and a man with a scar on his face before her vision blurred and faded to darker than black. Goodbye... Ed


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Asuka found herself in a landscape when she opened her eyes. She was lying on a forest of some sort, surrounded by trees, all of them, Asuka didn't recognize. The sun wasn't shining, the moon wasn't up, and the stars weren't there, but it was just after twilight. When wind blew across the landscape, she got the gist that this scenery wasn't real, as however many leaves it shook, however many blades of grass it managed to bend, when the wind touched her, she didn't feel anything. Her hair stayed the same and her clean shirt didn't sway in favour of the wind either... Wait... Clean? Asuka grabbed her shirt's stomach area with her small trembling hands, as if challenging it to be red. Nothing... Not even a drop of blood... Wait, why were her hands so small? Now that she brought the question up, she now realized that her body was much smaller than she remembered it. She got up, but a sudden wave of dizziness came over her, causing her to lose her balance. She tried putting her small hands on a nearby tree in order to steady herself. But her hands went right through, as if the tree was just an illusion, causing her to land face first into the soft grass. But if this was just an illusion, then what was she standing on? The ground felt solid. It supported her weight. She looked around from her place on the ground. She saw nothing but trees everywhere she looked until a spark of yellow caught her eye. It shone so brightly, so strongly, but it was so fickle too. Asuka then noticed that familiar voice singing again, coming from the light, but singing a different song* but familiar all the same.

_Walking under... a solemn moon_

_A traveler searching for... an unseen tomorrow  
At times confused... at times impatient...  
at times seeming about to collapse  
A path that seems to continue for eternity_

"Momma?" Asuka got up. Even her voice sounded shriller, as if she was younger, like four years old. If she wasn't mistaken, this is the voice of her mother. Happiness bloomed inside of her heart. "Momma?" She hurriedly got onto her feet, and stumbled her way across the forest floor. She kept on tripping over unfamiliar steps, but without losing speed (as she was slow to begin with) she made her way to that voice.  
_In the flowers swaying beside my feet  
joy is blooming  
Please don't overlook  
the small signs of love  
The mystery of a life that returns...  
like the way a star is born...  
Because I am... always breathing...  
within you_

Closer and closer Asuka got to the flickering light. Almost... almost there. The voice sounded closer and closer..._  
The form of one fighting... at the limits of their strength  
A traveler pursuing... the reason for sadness  
At time worried... at times wounded...  
at times being betrayed  
A steep wall... blocking the way..._

But after each small step, it was like Asuka didn't move at all... no, not like that. It was like Asuka was traveling backwards, doomed to never see the small flickering light that attracted her so much._  
In the wind that runs through the earth...  
gentleness is dwelling...  
Please try and hear...  
the whispered words of love_

"Momma, it's me, it's Asuka" but no one answered her. The voice didn't stop singing. Step after step Asuka took, but made little progress_  
The mystery of a life that returns,  
like the way the seasons change...  
Because I am always... watching over you..._

_Within you_

Asuka was near now. After taking around a thousand steps to get ten meters, she could finally see past the thick trees. There was a clearing. A perfect circlular clearing with a round fountain in the centre. In the centre of the round fountain was the light. Flickering and seeming like you could blow it out in one breath like a birthday candle, it still persisted and burned on brightly, brilliantly._  
In the flowers swaying beside my feet...  
joy is blooming  
Please don't overlook...  
the small signs of love_

The light just sort of floated there, above the water of the fountain. Even though the water vapor of the fountain constantly shot at it at point blank range, the light kept on flickering brilliantly, never dimming. Just getting brighter and brighter. And there, on the side of the fountain, another light manifested itself, the source of the voice. Sitting there, was a figure glowing just like the tiny light, fuzzy and hard to see, but Asuka immediatly recongnized it as _her_. Joy exploded in Asuka's chest and she broke off into a sprint, running desperatly trying to get to the glowing image. But for every metre she traveled, she was swept back two by the raging wind that finally decided to form._  
The mystery of a life that returns,  
like the way the morning awakens...  
Because I am always breathing,  
within you_

Farther and farther, Asuka was restricted from the glowing figure. "Momma!" she yelled, her voice extremely shrill. "Momma!" And she was swept away from this dream like world. From this paradise.

Asuka opened her eyes. She was now in a room. Not a white hospital room, but a normal living room.

"Oh, you're awake" a little asian girl said. Where had Asuka seen her before? Asuka looked around and spotted Winry sitting on another chair that she pulled over, looking relieved. Wasn't she supposed to be in Rush Valley? "Closing your stomach injury was no biggie, but you lost a lot of blood. I was afraid that you wouldn't make it, and you wouldn't have if you didn't get a blood donner. You see, there are many different blood types in this world, around 50 different types. Of course, not all blood is the same, but the blood from different people and in the same type are very similar. If you want a blood transplant, the donner has to have the same blood type as the patient. When I tried to put some bandages on you, I found a stray blond hair weaved into your sweater. When I compared it with your blood, I recongnized the hair's owner had the same blood type as you. So I had Lord Alphonse contact the hair's owner because he recongnized it as one of his friend's hairs. She came and agreed to donate, so I transfered the blood"

"So we're like sisters now!" Winry chirped. Asuka was speechless. Recongnizing all that just by looking at a single hair? Was that even possible?

"So now, we're resting in Dr Knox's house" the girl said. Asuka then heard the door open, and Ed came into the room.

"Hi Ed" Winry greeted, but he immediatly noticed that Asuka was awake and went to kneel beside her.

"You're awake" He said and Asuka could tell that he didn't sleep much in the past few days. Purple bags formed underneath his golden eyes, but he looked happy now. He even looked like he was glowing, with the wide grin on his face and his shiny blond hair.

"Ed..."

"I brought lunch for everyone. You've been asleep for two days now, so your body must really be getting to you" he offered her an apple. Now that he brought it up, Asuka's stomach felt like it was shriveled up and dead.

"Winry, let's go make some tea" the little girl said, and they exited the living room, leaving Asuka and Ed alone. She bit down on the apple and had to use every ounce of resistance she had to chew and not shove the apple down her throat. "Whoa, calm down, you'll choke" he laughed, but then his smile disappeared. "Asuka, there's something I have to tell you" Asuka turned to look at him, mouth still chewing furiously. "I want you to go back with Winry to Rush Valley while Al and I search" Asuka choked. She didn't hear right, right? Ed couldn't be abandoning her, could he?

"Wh-what?"

"After we're done, we promise to get you back to your world"

"Why? Why do you think you shouldn't take me with you?"

"After Envy tortured you, I thought I lost you. I don't want history repeating itself"

"Why? Our alchemy was sealed away then! You couldn't do anything either. Do you think that I'm not strong enough?" she yelled, offended.

"No" he calmly said. "I just don't want to lose you again." his eyes held hers. Gold into blue. Asuka was shocked by his words. Never before had he displayed emotion to her other than irritation. But now, sadness clearly showed in his eyes, proving that he really cared about her... and as much as a smart alec Asuka was, even she needed a moment to recover from that. And when she did, she crossed her arms and looked away, blush rising to heat up her cheeks.

"Fine" she snapped, putting up the front again "but as long as you promise to get me back to 2015"

* Claymore character song for Teresa. If you want to listen to it, here's the link for youtube:

watch?v=HTuJKDWzo6g


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Sorry Asuka. I was actually the one who gave Ed the idea to send you with me to Rush Valley" Winry apologized. "When I first saw you unconscious, I thought you were gone. And seeing your stomach injury..." The almost empty train stopped picking up speed, the train station long gone from sight. There weren't a lot of people on this train. Perhaps it wasn't vacation time in this world and everyone's working their butts off to save up money for vacation time...

"Don't worry. I'm way better now. And the only reason that I travel with him is because I want to get back to 2015. But now, I get to kick back and relax and let Ed and Al do all the work" Asuka smiled, not wanting Winry to feel bad. But the truth was that Asuka would rather be searching and fighting along with the brothers. Fighting along their side had been fun just like piloting the EVA and defeating the angels. Just being with the Elrics had been a blast. That was only part of why she wanted to stay. The main truth was that she would kind of... sort of miss Ed... But only a little! And because they were somewhat friends! Sure he was cute, but he was hot headed, annoying, and constantly ranting and bickering with her. But now, whenever she would see him smile, her stomach would do a somersault her own insides would warm too, as if spring decided to come early and melt and heal the scars that were left behind. Which confused her even more. Does she like him, or does she not? But there's no way that she would be attracted to him in _that_ way! But if he wasn't so annoying and short tempered, could he and Asuka have been...? Nah. Impossible.

"Hey, Asuka, can I ask you something?" Winry said, breaking Asuka out of her trance

"Sure"

"What do you think about Ed?" Winry's face turned into the same colour as a cherry. She then looked like she suddenly developed a interest with the hem of her shirt, as if shirts had just been invented and she should pay full attention to it. She kept her head down, trying to hide her rouge face.

"What?" Asuka asked, not understanding what Winry meant

"I... I mean... D-do you like him?" Winry stuttered, her face turned into a deeper colour of red. Perhaps maroon?

"Wh-What?" Heat also rose up to colour Asuka's cheeks. Damn! Can Winry read minds or something?! But her pride was at stake here! If she told Winry what she truly felt, it was all so confusing inside and Asuka herself was trying to work out how she really felt about that blond. If she told Winry, maybe Winry would help her figure out what she's feeling. But if she told Winry, what about her pride? Asuka weighed the odds, gave it much thought and decided. She started laughing "Haha. What I think of that idiot? I think he's hot headed and annoying to be around, but he's nice sometimes. But really! We're just friends/enemies."

Winry rose her head a little, looking as if she couldn't believe it. "But I always thought... Are you sure you...?"

"No way! There's absolutely no way I'm attracted to him in _that_ way" Asuka answered, determined to protect her pride, even if she had to lie.

"Do you promise that...?"

"Yes. I promise that I won't get together with him. Besides, I'm going back to 2015 soon so there's really no point in a relationship in the first place. So don't worry!" That part wasn't a lie. Sure Asuka might be feeling a little something for Ed, she and Ed could never be. Ed will find the stone soon and send her off to her world and they would never see each other again.

"Really?"

"Really!" Asuka confirmed.

"I'll miss you. I mean, do you really have to go?" Winry's cheeks were now free of the red colour. Her eyes were now free of embarrassment and was replaced with sadness.

"Yeah. EVA is my life. Without EVA, I'm nothing. With EVA is where home is, where I belong"

"I'll never forget you. We were truly friends and I hope that you can come back and visit sometime" Winry said and fell silent. That was how both Winry and Asuka felt, but they both knew that after Asuka went back, there's very little chance that she would return.

After a few minutes, Asuka broke the silence"Can I ask you one thing?"

"What?" Winry asked, caught off guard.

"What do you see in that hot headed idiot?"

The red returned to Winry's cheeks before she turned away in embarrassment. But good embarrassed, not bad embarrassed. "His kindness..." she muttered.

A/N: My God, this is such a short chapter. but i was busy playing plants vs zombies and rewatching claymore today.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A month passed. A month without Ed or knowing where that idiot was. But however stupid or an idiot he might have been, he was still Asuka's friend. So when Winry got the call from Ed saying that he was in the north and needed new automail, Asuka wanted to go too. But Winry firmly told her not to go and stay in Rush Valley because Asuka would try to fight and get hurt again. Winry early in the morning to catch her train and left Asuka all alone with Paninya in this land full of automail. Paninya had been cheerful and helped Asuka around, but she was no Ed. Sure Asuka wouldn't allow herself to like Ed for both her and Winry's sake, but that didn't mean she could stop thinking about him. Every time his face popped up in her mind, or his smile floated into her head, she would grow more and more frustrated with herself, not knowing if she liked him or not. Paninya helped, of course, by being her naturally loud self and brought Asuka out of her thoughts, sparing Asuka hours of thinking about Ed.

A week passed by without being too bad. A week passed after Winry left that Asuka got a call from Winry and Al that they were in Liore now and might not be visiting Rush Valley anytime soon, so Asuka should come to Liore too. Asuka was filled with happiness at the news, immediately went and packed her bags, said good bye to Paninya and the others, and walked to Liore. Rush Valley and Liore were extremely close together, so it didn't take long at all for Asuka to get to her destination. Now what was she supposed to do? She didn't know where Winry was staying and she didn't set up a meeting place with Winry. What was she going to do... not. Ha! Don't patronize Asuka! Asuka was a university graduate at the tender age of 13! With her Einstein mind, she will figure something out!

"Asuka, Asuka!" a voice called out "Over here!"

Asuka turned around, just to be tackled by Winry into a bear hug. Asuka's suitcase went flying into the street.

"Asuka, long time no see! I missed you so much!" Winry said

"Calm down. It's only been a week" Asuka said

"Awww... So you don't miss me back?" Winry dramatically asked and released her.

"Asuka" Al said cheerfully

"Al! Really long time no see!" Asuka said and wrapped her arms around his armour.

"So you miss him and not me?" Winry muttered.

"Ok, so you and Ed parted ways in that building and left Scar when you got to Liore" Asuka summarized what Winry and Al led told her "So where is Ed right now?"

Both Al and Winry looked down at their feet "We don't know" they said in unison.

"After he left with those chimeras, we don't know where he went" Winry said

"I see..."

"Hey, Asuka" Winry's face brightened and she took Asuka's hand. "I'll show where I'm currently staying. It must be a pain to drag that suitcase all around" Winry led Asuka to a house. Winry knocked on the door

"Rose!" The door opened a few seconds later.

"Winry. Who's this?" The woman at the door asked. Her black hair fell to her hips and her bangs were, probably dyed, pink. "Hey, it couldn't be... Asuka?" The woman, Rose, recognized.

"Hmm?" Asuka asked "Who are you?"

"Ah, my bad, I just didn't recongnize you because you changed your clothes and fashion so much" Asuka said in Rose's living room.

"Nah, it's ok. I believed in a miracle cure" Rose continued her story from before Asuka interrupted her. "That was supposed to bring my dead boyfriend back to life and fell into Letoism. It was then that you, Ed and Al came to this town, and exposed the priest's trickery. Everything that I clung up to then vanished, and I lost hope" Asuka wouldn't blame her. Reason to be alive... Reason to live on... Reason to continue... Whatever it's called, losing that will, that reason, and living on anyway is the hardest thing a person can go through. "Then Ed got angry at me. He told me to stand up and walk on my own legs."

"Sorry, he's always like that" Winry apologized "I wonder why he can't be nicer" but Asuka could tell that Winry didn't think that Ed was mean. She could see that Winry absolutely adored Ed

"He was being nice. That was Ed's kindness. You understand it too, right?" Rose said, causing Winry to blush "Because of him, our eyes were opened. Both mine's and the whole town's. We were all trying to get up on our feet on our own, without relying on miracles. And it's because of you, Ed and Al. Let me express my gratitude again. Thank you, Asuka. I'm glad to have met you."

"Asuka" Winry said after Asuka got out of her bath, "You know Ed?"

"What do you mean? Of course I know him!" Asuka said

"I think he might be attracted to you" Winry said sadly

"What? That's impossible!"

"You always get along with him in your own way. You're smart. You're strong and tough. You know alchemy. And most of all, you're pretty." Winry looked at her feet "Not just pretty. From all across Amestris, you might be number one. If not, then in the single digits. I know I could never be compared to you." A tear rolled down Winry's cheek "I don't know alchemy. I'm not strong or tough. I'm not nearly as smart as you. And our looks are on completely different levels." Winry fell to the floor and started sobbing "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to think. For all my life, I've been bossing Ed around. Trying to tell him what to do so that he doesn't get hurt. How could someone be attracted to a person like that? And after I made his automail, he just goes and gets hurt again. Then, I keep on repairing his automail again and again, and he just gets hurt over and over. Am I helping him get hurt by making his automail?" She paused to cry. Asuka wondered how Rose couldn't hear all the noise that Winry was making. Oh yeah... Rose went shopping for food...

"Get up, Winry" Asuka said

"Asuka" Winry looked up "Asuka, I'm sorry, I..."

"Winry, your weakness is trying to be perfect and to remain victorious." Asuka said "All humans make mistakes and soil their hands. That's especially true for those in leadership positions. A battle where no one dies, a battle where you protect everyone, that's splendid and noble to aim for, but in some battles, that's just not feasible"

"But I still..."

"Let me tell you one thing: He, who had no choice but to simply stay in bed until he died after his arm and leg were taken, was already saved when you gave him an arm and leg and he was able to do something humane by just being able to stand up by his own free will and search for a way to get his and his brother's bodies back. No one who fights as a human would be so selfish as to demand you save his life when you've already saved him as a human being. We have friends here who fight by our side. They're not just here because they're following your orders. They stood up on their own legs and walked here by their own choice with pride."

Winry's face was frozen in shock. But she then looked down again, unable to mask her shame

"So get up, Winry." Asuka reached out her hand to Winry "Like I said before, you have comrades here. We will support you in whatever you can't do alone even if it takes force"

"I see" Winry said and took Asuka's hand "You're right"

A/N: sorry. this chapter might have came a little late... but i wasn't feeling well in the last few days


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Asuka listened to Al 'brilliant' plan to get Winry and Asuka back to Risembool without being discovered . She listened, but she wasn't convinced. Al wanted Asuka and Winry to... hide in pots and be carried over to Risembool? He wanted Asuka Langley Sohryu to crouch inside that cramped piece of crap for hours? Electric discharge had flared around dangerously while Al tried to talk her into it, and after hours and hours, Asuka couldn't come up with a better plan so into the pot she went and Winry into another one. But what really bothered her was if Ed was ok or not. He might be dead for all Asuka would know! Her stomach quivered, as if it too was afraid of Ed dying. But if Ed really did die, Asuka doesn't know what she would do afterwards. Every time she asked herself if he left her behind, Asuka's heart would shudder and feel like she was back in that white room again, stuck underneath Envy's hand, but Envy was burying his blade into her heart instead of her stomach. The pot rattled, shaking her out of her thoughts. Asuka would have preferred to walk instead of this. This way of travel was not first class. It was the most cheapest, uncomfortable, and most vile thing that Asuka had ever traveled by. So when one of the Briggs Fortress soldiers that Asuka and Winry were being carried by called out: "Alright, we're here!", Asuka jumped out of the pot and breathed in the scent of fresh air while Winry slowly got out and stretched her limbs. Winry then opened the back door of her house, she and Asuka stepped inside and the darkness swallowed them. But it was reassuring, familiar darkness of Winry's house. Not creepy, scary, I'm-gonna-eat-you, darkness.

"It smells like home" Winry smiled and made her way upstairs and Asuka followed.

"Oh! There's automail everywhere!" one of the men commented, fascinated.

"Don't touch any of the pieces in process, ok?" Winry said as she and Asuka made their ways to Winry's room. Asuka grabbed the doorknob, turned it and pushed inwards, the door moving from the force of her hand and revealed Winry's room. Asuka didn't expect anything more or less than that. But after she looked around, she broke off into a sprint and darted towards the direction of Winry's desk, and buried her fist into a familiar, dumbass blond's head.

"Ow! What the-?!" Ed rubbed his sore head, bruise now forming underneath his hair.

"Leaving your brother and Winry behind and not bothering to tell them where you went! Not even calling me to tell me what you're doing! Nobody knew if you were even dead or alive! Don't you ever be that irresponsible ever again, Edward Elric!" Asuka unleashed all the worry she felt in the past month. "What the hell would I do if you left me behind?!" But then the door burst open again

"What's wrong?" Both soldiers demanded, their guns raised, ready to fire, but then they realised "Edward Elric?"

"Intruders!" The sound of two more guns preparing to shoot, pointed at the back of the soldiers' heads. And while the soldiers and the two other men figured out who each other was, they started arguing over pointless things, Winry lost more and more of her patience, shoving everyone out of her bedroom.

"Isn't Al with you?" Ed asked

"Al is back at Liore, helping the people there rebuild their city." Winry said. "Well, I might as well head down to the market to buy food. The fridge must be empty, and if it isn't, all the things inside of it must be expired. The soldiers from Briggs are probably leaving now, since they completed their mission by escorting us. And then I have to get to work on my automail orders. It'll take hours" she sighed. "But the sooner I start, the sooner I get done" Winry left the room, leaving Asuka and Ed alone.

"The promised day is next week, right?" Asuka asked

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Al told me. So when do we leave for Central?"

"We? You're not coming with us" Ed stated firmly

"No" Asuka rejected "I want to go with you"

"No" Ed said

"Why can't I go with you?!" Asuka demanded "Do you worry that I'm weak and would hold you back? Because we have around the same strength! I need to go!"

"No" he said

"Why?!" Asuka asked

But instead of answering her question, Ed asked "Hey, earlier, you asked me what you would do if I left you behind?" A teasing smile rose up to his face

"I said no such thing!" Asuka said, even though the memory flashed in her mind. Her stomach did a few somersaults and blush went up to coat her cheeks.

"You were worried" he teased

"I was not!" Asuka defended her pride

"Yes you were. But that's why I don't want you to go with me" his smile disappeared "I don't want to lose you" he said softly "Like I lost my mother"

A lump wedged itself inside of Asuka's throat. Could his mother had been who he and Al performed human transmutation on? Nobody ever told her who it was. All she knew that they attempted that transmutation after their father left them and it went horribly wrong and the brothers' bodies were taken. It was then that Asuka realised he was like her in a way. His father abandoned him and his mother was taken away from him.

"She was everything to me and Al" Ed continued "She was home. She was the one that me and Al could always go back to. And after she left, me and Al burned down our house, as it was nothing but an empty building without her. But the reason that she died... The reason that I will never be able to forgive _him_..." Ed's face filled with rage and he paused to calm down. Why was he telling Asuka all this? Does he trust her so much that he was ready to relieve the weakness of his past to her? But no matter what, Asuka would never tell anyone anything about her weakness... right? Even if telling someone could heal, there was no injury to be healed. Asuka had gotten over it... right? "Because our _father_" he spit the word out, full of venom "left us, our mom got sick and left. I hate him! He took everything away! It was his fault!" Ed finished

"You sound just like Stupid Shinji" Asuka commented "He hates his dad too. I know you're supposed to love your dad or something, but you guys completely ignore that. Well, how would I know?" She asked, causing Ed to surprisingly look at her

"Don't you have a father? Asuka?" Ed asked.

"Nope!"

"What?" Ed asked "Did he die?"

"Nope! Never had one in the first place" Asuka said in a carefree tone "Ever heard of a sperm bank? A sperm bank, semen bank or cryobank is a facility that collects and stores human sperm mainly from sperm donors, primarily for the purpose of achieving pregnancies through third party reproduction in my world" Asuka quickly explained after seeing the confused look on Ed's face "My father was one of the sperm that my mother withdrew from the bank. I was conceived in a test tube. And listen up! It wasn't just any sperm! My mother chose a very exclusive sperm bank! The donor passed a strict qualification test on academic background and character" Asuka bragged "Of course, the women who buy the sperm have to be similarly qualified as well. And my father's was the best of them: from a genius scientist. So I was born from a combination of an elite sperm and elite egg. Which means... I was a chosen being. A special person" she said and put on her happy face. She didn't want Ed to see her sadness. When her mother lost her mind, it was hell. Whenever she would talk about her mother, sadness would show it's ugly head and she would always have to beat it down. She had no clue why she would feel like this. She had long gotten over it. But even if she didn't want anyone to see her sadness, Ed saw through her anyway.

"What's wrong? What happened to your mother? You didn't talk about her much" he asked. Wow. He was sharp

"None of your business!" Asuka snapped. She was not going to tell him! "I'm going to take a bath!" and she left.

She turned on the tap in the bathroom, and put her finger underneath it to test the temperature. Why should she tell Ed? She hasn't told anyone before. So why does she want to tell him? Of course she trusted him, and he trusted her enough to tell her about his past, and it would only be fair to tell him, but...

She sank into the hot water, relief washing over her body, but not reaching her mind. She has never, _ever,_ told _anyone_. So why is her heart nagging at her, telling her to tell Ed? Why does she feel this way? Could it be that she maybe... liked him? No! Impossible! She has never liked anyone before! And what about the promise she made with Winry? Damn! What should she do? Should she tell him... Or should she not?

Half an hour later, Asuka emerged from the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel. She went back to Winry's room and saw that Ed wasn't there. Asuka then walked to the guest room and saw that Ed had migrated to that desk and was reading his book again, studying.

"Hey Ed" she called "I need to tell you something" her heart was beating a thousand times a second, nervousness washed over her as she approached the blond

"Hmm? What?" Ed asked, looking up form his book. Asuka sat down on the side of the bed and could feel herself melting from his golden gaze. Asuka had to remind herself what she came here to do. She gulped and began.

"You asked earlier about my mother..." her heart fluttered in her chest and something hard and thorny goes out of her and she tells him everything. She told him about her mother. About how one day, her mother lost her mind due to a failed experiment. She talked about how her mother thought a rag doll was her daughter and about how her mother would strangle her sometimes, when Asuka went too close to her and how even though her mother would try to kill her, she just couldn't stop trying to get close to her mother and trying to get her to acknowledge Asuka.

On and on she talked, scooping the fruit out of her life and dropping it into his lap. The woman she has always known herself as seemed to be napping nearby. When she woke up, she was finishing "... and when I opened the door, she was hanging by the ceiling. She looked so happy..." Ed was wide eyed and his mouth was open slightly. She gulped down air greedily, reliving her past taking all her stamina and happiness of the day. No, perhaps for the whole month. She looked down in shame. If only she had been stronger... If she only had been perfect... then it wouldn't hurt anymore. Damn her. Damn her to hell. If only she had been stronger... but all these thoughts stopped when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her. She looked up in surprise but met Ed's lips as they made contact with hers.

Everything inside Asuka froze and melted at the same time. Every thought flew from her mind except the warm pair of lips that were pressing against hers with need. For some reason, one would always expect that Asuka had a relationship before. Maybe several relationships with all those admirers stalking her... but truth was... she never dated a guy before. Heck, she never even kissed a guy before (Stupid Shinji doesn't count as a guy)! Her mind turned into mush and she couldn't think. All she felt, all that she could cling to, were those two strong arms around her waist and the pair of lips pressing against hers and could do nothing except cling onto the front of his shirt as he filled the emptiness inside of her with warmth without even realising it.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

It wasn't until a few minutes later that Asuka's mind started working again. The warmth that Ed was offering was just like the warmth that Asuka used to take for granted everyday, back when her mother was still alive, oblivious that one day it would end. Asuka's mind registered the warmth, registered that her heart was fluttering in her chest and her stomach was doing gymnastics, but it also registered that something was wrong and was doing everything it can to keep Asuka from kissing back. It registered that Asuka shouldn't be doing this, because she promised Winry. The old Asuka wouldn't have cared and would have succumbed to her desires. But this wasn't the old Asuka. The old Asuka might have been dead or simply sleeping inside the abyssal depths of Asuka's mind, therefore Asuka wasn't the old Asuka anymore. Spending time with the Elrics and Winry and away from EVA had softened Asuka's spirit enough for her to tell someone about her hard and thorny past and enough for her to restrain herself from further breaking her promise to Winry.

Ed removed his lips just to pull Asuka into a tight hug, his chin resting on her shoulder. A few moments of silence came and went, Ed burying his face deeper and deeper into her shoulder.

"Asuka, you are not perfect. You're a spoiled brat even, but ever since I met you, you've always looked like you were in pain. Your eyes... behind all that aggressiveness and fire, you had sad eyes. Just like my eyes. You're face looked so lonely and painful, like you couldn't bare it." his arms tightened around her. "If you continued to go on like this, to not open up to anyone and to bare that pain by yourself, you would have died. Not immediately, because you're tough, but eventually, the fire that I see in you would have burned out. Asuka, I l-"

"Wh-what about Winry...?" Asuka muttered to herself, her cheeks red and her heart beating like helicopter blades.

"Winry? Don't worry. She's just a friend and my automail mechanic" Ed said. But it was the thing that gave Asuka the strength to slip her hands between her and Ed and shove, and Ed, caught off guard, was pushed away.

"Asuka..." he said "I-"

"I can't" Asuka interrupted, colour lighting up her face "I can't like you. Why don't you ask Winry or something. I'm sure she'd gladly return your feelings. I can't" No one else can grasp how much pain Asuka was causing herself by rejecting the warmth that she missed for so long. But rejecting the warmth right now can't compare to how it feels for it to be yanked from under your feet after you've settled down. It might hurt when the relationship is stopped before it even began, but it hurts ten times worse when you're expecting so much, with so much hope built up, that it absolutely shatters you when you have to end it farther down the road. After all, even though a hedgehog may wish to get close to another hedgehog, the closer they get the more they injure each other with their spikes. The weak cling to words, and those with power die for those without it. Asuka would always tell herself "try harder next time", but sometimes, it's not possible. "If you can't do it, try again and again until you succeed"? Only people who don't know when to give up say that. They have to accept the fact that not everything's possible. Some things, you just can't do, and your tries would just be wastes of time and effort. For example, can men fly without any sort of help? So would they flap their arms until they're too tired to even lift a finger, then try again the next day? At that rate, they're just going to be chasing the rainbow, running around in circles until death. Why don't they just give up already? Birds are gifted with wings, not humans. But humans have thumbs while others don't. So lose sight of flying and make good use of your thumbs. But Asuka doesn't want to make use of her thumbs. She wants to fly. She wants a pair of white wings, like a bird's, on her back. She wants to flap her wings and leave this cruel world and fly high into the sorrowless blue sky, but those who go too close to the sun will get their wings burned off and flung back onto the earth. Asuka looked down at her hands folded in her lap and shame welled up in her chest. She had promised Winry. She was the reason that Winry has so much hope built up, just to be rejected in the end because the guy of her dreams already likes someone else. After all, it's not rejection that hurts. It's expectation. Winry had always done so much for Asuka. They were like sisters, heck, Asuka even has Winry's blood inside her body. Winry had always been there when Asuka needed a friend to just sit next to. But even after all that, Asuka was still not strong enough to be loyal and push Ed right away.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around Asuka again and Ed pulled her into another kiss. Asuka started to squirm and struggle, trying to break free, but her resolve was thinning and breaking, tempting her to give in to the warmth. She regretted not putting on her synchro clips after her bath, as she can't electrify him without them, so she settled on ramming her fists into his chest, but that only caused his grip to tighten. Snap. Her resolve finally broke into pieces, the ecstasy and warmth welcoming her home as she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She kissed him back with such craving and passion that Ed was caught off guard again and the two of them tumbled onto the bed. Ed's spirits overjoyed, like a lost puppy finally finding his owner after much hardship. The two of them separated from this world into their own. A world free of sorrow and hurt. A world where both of them could belong without disapproving eyes. A world where two people who shared the same pain could be themselves. A world of eternal youth and beauty. After all, childhood is not from birth to a certain age and at a certain age the child is grown and puts away childish things. Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.

A/N: I'm so sorry i haven't updated in forever. i have always expected that a day would come where i wouldn't get as many inspirations as at the beginning of the story if you know what i mean. but i never expected that day to come so soon. but for my excuse, i was busy finishing watching elfen lied, higurashi and hetalia. Switzerland is so cute! I wanna take him home with me!


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